ENTRE PUITS ET GARRIGUE

Description

Natural Cultural

As you wander through the narrow streets, the church dedicated to Saint Martin indicates the village’s distant origins (8th century). No need to look for the castle walls, which have not stood the test of time.

The name of the village comes from the Occitan ‘fraïsse’, pronounced ‘fraïssé’ meaning ‘ash tree’. The large presence of this deciduous tree may have given the toponym its name.

Nowadays, these trees only grow at the bottom of valleys, where they find the fresh, loose soil they need. The village, built on a knoll with strong Mediterranean influences, dominates the Trapel valley. The gateway to the Montagne Noire, Fraïsse Cabardès offers relaxing walks punctuated by light and shade. The garrigue, which is still very much present, was not always an arid desert open to walkers, but was once a place of intense activity: pastoralism with goats and sheep, intense clearing and collection of wood to fuel the charcoal kilns and lime kilns…

The garrigue is a man-made environment.