Le Domaine de Fondespierre

Thursday November 18, 2010 Day 141

The AWG has a “walk” scheduled every month. There are many marked walking paths around the Montpellier area, and the club has several faithful participants for each walk. This time we went to the Domaine de Fondespierre, which offers a number of walking paths. Mariannick led and set a nice pace. There were eight of us, including Roger, myself, Mariannick, Katharine, Julie, Susan, Maggie, her daughter Laura. Not long into the walk we paused to take in the sight of the Castle Castries and the village of Castries in the distance, with its church spire sharing the skyline with the castle.

On the grounds of the Domaine lies an aqueduct built to supply the Castle Castries several hundred years ago. We turned to walk along the stone water channel for the aqueduct, topped with stones. We walked along the stones, or alternatively on the path beside them. Some 100 meters along, we came to at side waterway. After some discussion, we decided must be a trough for watering animals. It was only 5-6 meters long, located a few meters away from the main aqueduct channel. We resumed our walk along the channel, then veered away from it after another 100 meters or so. The day was lovely - mostly sun with some clouds, and a temperature of about 15 degrees. When our path led us among trees, we were almost cold, but in the sunshine we shed our jackets and soaked in the warmth.

We crossed a road and a few meters later came upon an arch - the remains of a Roman bridge - spanning a brook. There were stepping stones constructed across the brook, so we paused here for a photo op. The fields were full of late wildflowers of which I have no experience, but they were lovely. Just before lunch we came across an entire section of heather. Shortly after noon we selected a sunny spot to eat our well-deserved picnic lunches, varying from chicken to a tuna salad with cheese and tomatoes to meat-filled pastry to sandwiches, accompanied by yogurt, potato chips, pickles, fruit, and avocado. Several of the walkers shared tea. Such healthy choices!

On the trail again after lunch, we soon came to a chaplet standing alone alongside the path, which we explored briefly.

We continued our walk and discovered the aqueduct in the distance, beautiful against the oranges and yellows of the autumn vineyards. 

Our path took us along the vineyards and under the aqueduct, standing tall and resplendent in the November sky.

As we walked along a road, we were greeted by lovely white horses eager for whatever we would feed them. Unfortunately for them, a sign asked us not to feed the horses, so we restrained ourselves - not difficult since we had just finished lunch and most of us ate everything we brought! Maggie speculated that the horses might be Garrigue horses because of their color.



Then there was the area from which Mariannick said an attempt had been made to quarry stone, but it was found that the stone was unsatisfactory so the beginnings of the quarry were abandoned.

As we walked along, Mariannick pointed out an area where stone was once quarried, but it was on private property and we were unable to access it. A short distance along, we crossed a field, walked along a road and came to the entrance of a large quarry which was the source of a lot of the stone for Montpellier buildings. It appears that it has now been abandoned, but inside it was incredible. There were several acres of area where stone had obviously been removed, and the spaces are now filling up with water and soil and trees - truly wonderful! We noticed small rings and markers in several of the walls and someone in the group realized that this area is used for rappelling, possibly a training ground for emergency crew training.

 Note the tree below and check the next photo to observe how its root travels down the rock in search of water and nutrients.

Here we paused to consult Mariannick's map before exiting the quarry and heading back to the cars.

We trekked back through the field and returned to the road, past the horses and on toward the end of our journey. A woman on the road was working with one of the horses and Maggie paused and asked about them. She was told that they are a cross between Spanish and Garrigue horses. 

Finally, our journey was almost over.

As we approached the road, however, we noticed to our right another old quarry, this one much smaller and considerably more overgrown than the one we saw previously.

Then we were back to our cars and changing our shoes. What a wonderful walk! As I checked my pedometer, I found that it read almost exactly 20,000 steps. Great job, ladies (and Roger)!