The best traffic-free bike rides around Neffiès

The castle overlooks Pézènes-les-Mines from the upper part of the village. This castle is private, but its facades, roofs, and enclosure have been protected as historical monuments since 1981. Its history is ancient, but the ensemble we see today is the result of several construction and transformation campaigns. The Romanesque chapel, integrated into the castle, dates back to the 12th century. Its apse was later raised in the 14th century to take on a defensive function. The castle itself underwent significant alterations in the 14th, 16th, and 17th centuries. Two gates were notably built into the enclosure in the 17th century. The defensive elements are still very legible: two gates with arrow slits controlled access to the courtyard and were once protected by a drawbridge. Two towers flank the ensemble, while the enclosure follows the natural irregularities of the terrain. The chapel also retains a rather remarkable detail: its door and some of its bays are decorated with basalt inlays, giving the building a discreet but original polychromy. Pézènes-les-Mines was not always the small village one might imagine today. Pézènes was the capital of a marquisate that grouped the communities of Pézènes, Montesquieu, and Valmascle. The castle was therefore at the heart of a larger seigneurial territory. Little-known information: A plan from 1800 shows that behind the castle stretched a long terrace of about 270 meters, arranged as a garden, promenade, and belvedere overlooking the Peyne valley.

Restaurant Les Valseuses. Nice terrace, cool atmosphere, ate well for a fair price.

Built in the 12th century, the Saint-Gervais church accompanies the birth of the fortified village of Caux. From its promontory, it still dominates the medieval circular village, whose alleys are organized in circles around it. An often overlooked detail: the seigneurial castle once stood right next to the church. Destroyed in the 17th century, only a few remains integrated into neighboring houses still exist today.

Attention: these landforms are not ancient volcanoes! Roque Redonde and the Roc du Castellas are made of limestone formed in a marine environment about 330 million years ago (Carboniferous). During the formation of the Hercynian mountain range, these limestones were integrated into shale and sandstone terrains, then folded and deformed, up to 300 million years ago. Since then, erosion has almost entirely erased this ancient mountain range. The softer rocks have gradually disappeared, while the more resistant limestones have been exposed and now stand out in the landscape.

Les Crozes are one of those places that you only discover by leaving the classic routes. At the end of a small road lined with holm oaks lies a remarkably preserved hamlet. Its main treasure is the Saint-Martin church, mentioned as early as 990 and completed in the 12th century, whose beautiful pentagonal apse makes it a little gem of Languedoc Romanesque architecture. Also take the time to see the communal oven, restored in 1994, a testament to a time when the whole village came to bake its bread there.

At the turn of the relief, the lake of the Olivettes appears like a breath of fresh air in the landscapes of the Avant-Monts. The reservoir is set in a jewel box of limestone hills, where the lines of Pioch Perdut and Roc de Castel Viel structure the horizon.

be careful, the indication for the cycle route are not correct

Superb panoramic view of Vailhan and the surrounding terrain. From left to right, you can first see the "rocher du Castellas", a steep limestone ridge that bears the remains of a medieval castle. Then in the center, the "Roc de Loup" and the "Roc de Castel Viel", whose rocky limestone silhouettes contrast with the vegetation-covered slopes. On the right, just behind, the "Causse", a plateau that unfolds its long dark silhouette, a remnant of an ancient volcanic flow.