The upstream sections of the gorges of Véroncle

It was around year 1.000 that the land of Murs is given to the Agoult family who will build a castle. For four centuries, it was mainly a stronghold for the soldiers of the lord and the dungeon was then built there. After the Agoult family, came the weapons of the Astouaud family which you can see on the castle gate. The church was built in a Romanesque style in the 12th century inside the castle. The building is private and therefore closed to the public.

At the heart of the village of Murs hides the birth house of Crillon le Brave, born in 1543. Born Louis de Berton des Balbes, he will then become Crillon and will continue to wage war. He accompanied 5 kings of France, Henri II, François II, Charles IX, the Duke of Anjou who became Henri III, and it was Henri IV, his comrade, who gave him the name Brave Crillon. His life was made of battles, wounds and victories. He died in 1615 in Avignon, a victim of his countless injuries.

All of Remourase houses the very first collective energy wood boiler in the Luberon ... and even in the region! Established in 2000 during the redevelopment of a former holiday camp, it can heat 6 public housing, a lodge, a community hall and 5 local professionals. It is a renewable energy that contributes to the maintenance and the enhancement of the forest land. Since then, more than 40 boiler rooms of this type were carried out in Luberon.

The village of Murs dominates to the southwest a depression occupied by farmland. These grounds fit perfectly with the limestone and clay outcrops bordered by an imposing limestone mass. About 35 million years ago, during the Oligocene, deep fractures (faults) outlined a zone which sunk gradually: a Graben (german for ditch). This is the story of the ditch of Murs, which is also the story of Sénanque ...

Until the late 19th century, 15ha of natural hay meadows and pastures of this valley floor were partly submerged by the dam water feeding the mills of the Gorges. Today, these grasslands are wetlands, biodiversity supports, which fill the role of water storage, purification, protection against soil erosion and the run-off of the stream. They also have an important place in the local agricultural economy which is based on livestock.

Since the imposing dam placed on the ponds (now filled in) from the village of Murs to the Hameau des Cortasses, about ten flour mills operated from the 16th to the mid 19th centuries. Despite the places hard to reach, following along the ravine are amenities of a rare quality,: penstocks and channels carved in the rock, reservoirs and retaining walls.

Les surfaces rocheuses sur le bas côté du sentier, laissent deviner d'anciennes traces d'extraction de blocs. Chacun était découpé par une saignée sur 3 cotés. On peut encore distinguer les coups de pics puis la base était éclatée avec des coins en bois gorgés d'eau. Cette carrière a peut-être servi à la construction du barrage ou du moulin. Ce qui est curieux, c'est que la roche n'est pas de bonne qualité, marron, friable. Elle est "microcodiomitisée", c'est à dire "digérée" par des bactéries: microcodiums.

On this arid hillside, you can see a discreet broom (shrub) against the ground: Villars broom (Genista pulchella subsp. villarsii). Its meagre look is an adjustment to sunny and dry environments: It sweats very little! While fearing competition from other species, he deigns to share its habitat with few neighbours hand-picked, like here, Perennials (Minuartia capillacea) family of carnations with beautiful white flowers.

Built in the 16th century, This large tank was used to supply the first three mills of the Gorges belonging to the Lord of Murs. It also served as a fishing reserve. Remodelled several times over the centuries, it no longer works nowadays but remains in place. Two parallel walls 80m long held back a pile of earth forming a earth-fill dam. On a quoin, we can see a badge dated 1584 which could be a date of remodelling of the building.

First mill of the Gorges and located on the lands of the Lord of Murs, the current building was probably built in the 16th century, as evidenced by the date 1581 on the lintel of a door. It was probably enlarged in the 18th century and more recently converted into a private housing. Initially, it operated with an horizontal wheel turned into a vertical wheel at the end of the 19th century. It was fed by a resclause (small reservoir upstream) located near the old pond.

It is the second mill of the Gorges in Murs. Also built in the 16th century as indicated by the year 1573 engraved on a stone from the entrance door, it is now in ruins. It was fed by a béal (channel) which is none other than a leak of the mill of the pond. Today, we can only make out the grinding room which is in flint. Below stood the water chamber today obstructed, and above, the dwelling of the miller.

The third mill of the Gorges in Mursit is based on the same construction principle as the first two (a water chamber which is under the grinding room and the dwelling). The year 1753 is engraved on a stone corresponds most likely to the year of remodellingthan the initial construction. Here, we can easily distinguish the cannon in ashlar stone which allowed to create a waterfall and so a driving force between the resclause (small reservoir upstream) upstream and the water area below.

The water flow between the collapsed ditch of Murs located on the heights of the limestone plateau and the Apt basin downstream, dug this impressive canyon called "raccordement". Then the corrosive action of rain water containing carbon dioxide has gradually, through dissolution, enlarged cracks to create true underground networks. The Gorges de Véroncle are not used or hardly used by water, but contain an amazing industrial heritage.

En floraison d’avril à octobre, la linaire couchée (Linaria supina) est une plante de petite taille (moins de 20 cm). Ses fleurs jaune pâle, à palais jaune soufre sont regroupées en grappe. Elle aime se développer dans des endroits rocailleux comme dans les petits éboulis des versants empierrés des gorges de Véroncle. Grâce à un important réseau de racines longues, un peu de terre fine entre les pierres suffit à la linaire, qui en cas de déplacements du sol, reconstitue sa colonie un peu plus loin.

As of the 19th century, the lack of water and the inability to operate the mills of Véroncle more than two months in the year are being noticed. So to adjust to this, millers had to find other sources of income. This is how they started small farming units, mixed farming, firewood or silkworms! And when water would refuse to flow well in the Gorges again, the millers would return for a while to their milling business.

Le phénomène karstique, la dissolution de la roche calcaire par l’eau, et les sécheresses aggravées auraient contribué à l’appauvrissement de la ressource en eau, déjà rare dans les gorges. À ce phénomène s’ajoute l’ère industrielle et l’abandon progressif de la plupart des moulins de France au XIXe s. au profit des Grands Moulins industriels. Enfin, le bruit court qu’un séisme aurait peut-être sa part de responsabilité dans la disparition des moulins de Véroncle, fissurant le barrage en amont.

It is the first mill of Gordes. Built in the 16th century, it was expanded in the 18th century, as evidenced by the collages of masonry. It is a more complex construction on 4 levels: the water chamber, the grinding room, the sack floor and the dwelling (you can still see a fireplace and a sink). In the 19th century, an independent farming developed with arable lands, vineyards, mulberry trees, olive trees, almond trees, pigs, chicken coops.

The waterfall, where the Jean de Marre I mill was strategically located forms also a beautiful natural curiosity called tuff! Product of dissolved limestone redeposited, having captured plant and animal debris, the tuff is a very tender and friable rock. When the river is not dry, it is home to lush mosses and ferns particularly enjoying the saturated humidity of the place. This habitat is still rare and located in Provence.

Le réseau européen Natura 2000 est un outil clé pour enrayer l’érosion de la biodiversité. Il vise à assurer la survie à long terme des espèces et des habitats particulièrement menacés, à forts enjeux de conservation en Europe. Il est constitué d’un ensemble de sites naturels, terrestres et marins, identifiés pour la rareté ou la fragilité des espèces de la flore et de la faune sauvage et des milieux naturels qu’ils abritent. Le territoire Luberon-Lure comporte 10 sites Natura 2000, soit 8 zones spéciales de conservation (ZSC Habitats faune flore) et 2 zones de protection spéciale (ZPS directive Oiseaux). Les gorges de Véroncle sont à la fois une ZSC et une ZPS.

À hauteur de ce panneau "Lauzière", signifiant "chênaie verte" en occitan, un formidable panorama sur le bassin d’Apt s’offre à vous, avec les sables ocreux colorés de Roussillon. Au loin, le massif du Luberon se dessine avec le Grand Luberon culminant au Mourre Nègre (1125 m) et sa ligne de crêtes ondulées, puis un peu à l'ouest émerge le Petit Luberon, son plateau des Hautes Plaines et le Mourre de Cairas, point culminant (726 m). Entre Petit et Grand Luberon, les jours de bonne lumière, il est possible d'observer le massif de la Sainte-Victoire (1011 m).

Between Ventoux and Luberon, this wooded limestone massif opens onto rare agricultural parcels. Contemporary human presence is discreet but the wealth of the dry stone heritage is a reminder of its historical presence. A network of winding roads and ancient mule tracks serve the hilltop villages alongside the massif. These roads, dotted with remarkable oaks, reinforce the bucolic character of this countryside that seems frozen as if it was timeless.