MOURIES - Caisses de Jean Jean

As part of an educational action of the Park, the environmental education association Chemin Faisan has created a booklet which accompanies the milestones you can see, made by SEGPA classes (special needs educational division) of the René Cassin high school of Tarascon and 9 classes of the Mouriès school. The booklet along with the milestones allow the young audience to discover in an educational way the Caisses de Jean Jean and its heritage. Each colour present on the milestones symbolizes a theme explored in the book.

200 million years ago, a gigantic ocean, Tethys, caused the formation of the rocks by its water movements. Following the collision of the African and Eurasian plates then new movements, these vertical rocks were formed. If we take a closer look at these rocks, it is still possible to find traces of shells, fossils which survived for millions of years, and are witnesses to this past.

If you go into the scrubland to reach the cliff, you will see by looking, a round stone carved into the rock. In the past, man would carve into the cliff to create wheels for the mills to grind grains or to crush olives. This unfinished wheel has been around probably since the 17th century. It is said that cliff carving was done in the winter, stone carvers would put water into the holes around the stone. The water would freeze allowing the stone to break.

A Gallic oppidum (fortified village) stood here in the 6th century BC, date of the first rampart placed to protect the village. But there were two ramparts and cliffs protecting the several thousand Gauls then living in the Caisses. They had food through farming and crops they grew in the plains. Archaeological excavations have shown that this site has subsequently experienced the influence of the Romans and Greeks.

The European Bee-eater is characterized by its the many colours: yellow and black head, brown back, abdomen ranging from blue-green to turquoise blue, green tail and red iris make up this magnificent bird. Often perched at the top of a dead tree, it can be mistaken when far away with a swallow because it flies in the same way, especially when hunting, where it will alternate flapping their wings and flying steady.

From this viewpoint, at the end of the Caisses de Jean-Jean, it is possible to admire not only the peak of Opies to the east, but especially the plain of Crau to the south, stretching before your eyes in an endless view. Here, you can distinguish a patchwork landscape composed the Golf de Servanes and different cultivations (olive groves, vineyards, fruit trees), separated by paths and multiple cypress hedges.

Appelé "Merle bleu" pour sa ressemblance, le plumage du mâle est bleu-ardoise et brun pour la femelle et le juvénile. "Oiseau de la pierre", il ne peut se passer des escarpements rocheux, falaises et piémonts parsemés d’éboulis dans lesquels il s'y dissimule habilement. Il possède un tempérament inquiet, et se nourrit principalement d’insectes, de lézards et de graines, mais aussi de baies et petits fruits en hiver. Au cours du siècle dernier, les populations ont fortement régressé notamment à cause de l’embroussaillement, de la surfréquentation et des traitements phytosanitaires.

Who does not know the Grand Duke of Europe? Europe's largest owl, it nests all year in the cliffs and saw its population increase. Many grand dukes peacefully sleep during the day, waiting for the night to hunt. As the Bonelli's eagle, raptor is a super predator that feeds on small mammals such as hares, hedgehogs, and other birds.

This canal, measuring 53km long, was subject to a long process of reflection and design. Designed in 1792, the project will be launched over a century later, in 1914. In a landscape of steppe, it was important to develop human presence and the economy as a hydraulic network irrigates the territory to help the crops survive. This canal supplies all to itself the southern part of the Alpilles.