View of Marseillette pond

View of Marseillette pond

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View of Marseillette pond

Mountain biking

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Gravel riding

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Location: Blomac, Carcassonne, Occitania, France

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August 26, 2026

Gravel riding

The pond covers an area of 2000 ha, and is shared between the municipalities of Marseillette, Aigues-Vives, Saint-Frichoux and Puichéric. In the past, it supplied the region with fish.

From the 12th century onwards, people began to talk about draining this stagnant body of water, a source of death and misery for Marseillette and the surrounding villages, which were becoming depopulated. In 1605, Henry IV issued a royal decree to drain the Pond.

But it wasn't until 1804 and the purchase of the Pond by an Irishwoman, Madame de Lawless, that it was drained, thanks to a vast construction project.

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Max

2 days ago

Mountain biking

Once a source of disease (such as plague and malaria) due to its stagnant waters, the pond was the subject of drainage attempts as early as the 17th century under Henry IV and Louis XIII. A first channel was then dug to drain the water towards the Aude.

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Max

2 days ago

Mountain biking

It was finally at the beginning of the 19th century, from 1804 onwards, that the project succeeded thanks to the initiative of an Irish woman, Madame Lawless. Later, in the middle of the 19th century, the digging of a tunnel of more than 2 kilometers made it possible to bring water from the Aude to irrigate the pond and, above all, to wash out the salt accumulated in the soil. At the beginning of the 20th century, the engineer Joseph Camman modernized the site by creating, in particular, the Naudy hydroelectric plant to mechanize the work of the land.

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