AGE OF TIME

Join the D40 and descend to the entrance to a curve bending to the right. Take the path on the left, bordered by some trees. (Cairn (1) and (2) The landscape offers a succession of parallel layers, successively deposited over the millennia at the bottom of the ocean. Each of these layers belongs to a “stage” of the geological era. Each time as you climb a layer, you get closer to the present. Here, the oldest visible floors date from the end of the dinosaur era).

It joins the path of "Pas de la Vieille". Leave the access to the hamlet of Gauzy on the right and continue to the left on the track. (Cairn (3) At the end of the secondary era, the climate is hot and humid, “it's a bit like Africa.” It is from this period that the reddish lands date). Continue the track along the Laurio stream. (Cairn (4) Here, we are at the site of an old lake (70 million years ago): the accumulated sediments today form the limestone bar that you see in front of you). (Cairn (5) the stream “Le Laurio”, enclosed in gorges is of recent formation (beginning of the Quaternary). Cairn (6) (7) and (8) In the tertiary era, the Pyrenees are formed, leading to a powerful erosion. The materials are carried away by the torrents. Today we find in the bed of the river, pebbles aggregated in a calcareous cement: the pudding.

Take the path on the right by the stream, along the meadows and then into the wood. (Cairn (9) Above the path, the St Romain chapel, was famous for curing children struck dumb.) He goes up and turning his back to the stream, reaches and crosses the hamlet of "Las Borrios". (Cairn (10) We find in the limestone the imprint of many fossils of the “foraminifera” type, a kind of shells formed from a single cell but which can reach the size of a coin). (Cairn (11) and (12) Lichens settle on the rock. Made up of an algae and a fungus, they can colonize the environments most unsuitable for life. These rocks have been used by the man for his constructions). Leave a green fire zone on the right and continue to climb to the left. Ignore the access to the hamlet of "Borrios Naoutos" on the right.

Come out onto a track. Take it to the left uphill. (Cairn (13) and (14) 40 million years ago, this area was part of a “gulf” which was gradually filled in by the deposits brought by the currents. The coarsest fluvial deposits (the pudding), carried by more violent currents, are easy to discern from this trail).

Leave the track to descend by a path to the left along a green firebreak zone. (Cairn (15) Above you, the Lacamp plateau, occupied by herds.) (Cairn (16) This zone without vegetation is called a fire break and is used to slow down the progression of a fire.) hamlet of Larjonquié and after a few bends, find the edge of the Laurio stream. Follow it for about 250 m.

Cross the stream and leave the access to the farm on the left. (Cairn (17) Geological materials are used by man. Here, the red clay was extracted for the manufacture of tiles). At the track, turn right, uphill. We soon reach the top of the village. Leave it on the right and continue on the small road until the arrival. (Cairn (18) and (19) Lairière (copper mines) and the 2 hamlets of Laurio and Lauriol take their names from the old mining activity).