Rocher des Fées

Un petit clocher surmonte le bâtiment en face duquel le chemin arrive au hameau. " L'histoire de la cloche, personne ne la sait. Dans le temps, il y a plus de cinquante ans, elle servait à éloigner les orages. Quand il y avait un orage de grêle qui arrivait, on la sonnait et l'orage se dispersait, soi-disant. Les villages à côté criaient que l'orage leur tombait dessus, alors on a arrêté....."

“We were Catholics here, and there were many stories about fées (fairies). Opposite the Rock, there are piles of rocks, from a bridge built by the fairies. One day when it was -15°C here, people were coming back from Ispagnac and, at the foot of the Rock,  they saw a shivering baby, a little fairy dying of cold. They took her up to their house and put her next to the fireplace. When the little fairy started to revive, they heard the mother calling her through the chimney, Fédou, Fédou, so the little fairy flew out through the chimney.” 

"Called vergnes locally, they plunge their roots into the river because they love wet environments. This tree has a deep root system that enables it to cope with a brusque rise of the river. Its wood, reddish when cut, has long been considered evil. Once cut, it rots rapidly, but can last centuries if it is immersed in water. In the Middle Ages, it was used to make bridges. Venice is built on piles of alder and South European flowering ash. Soft and water-resistant, the wood was also used to make clogs.” (P. Grime)

There are actually two Bramonts! The one that you are cycling along, and another Bramont, which flows north of the Cham des Bondons. As you go through Les Combettes, you are at the foot of this limestone plateau, whose highest point is at about 1,200 m. But under the plateau flows another river: the underground Bramont, discovered in 1967. It takes some of the water of the Bramont du Lot (north) and empties it into the Bramont du Tarn (south)! The old-timers knew this and understood that by blocking, unblocking or diverting the waters draining out of the northern river, they could vary the rate of flow of the resurgence.

This is one of the eight watermills that used to operate in the Ispagnac valley. Two were on the Tarn, the others on its tributaries. These mills produced wheat flour and chestnut flour as well as oil.