Sunday morning, the sun is there. Neither one nor two, with Romain, my 10 years old son, we put on our hiking shoes, direction Gentioux, on the Limousin mountain.
We chose the hike of the Chandouille valley. This 7,9km loop is ideal to make the children discover the richness of the flora of the Plateau de Millevaches and the diversity of its landscapes.
We park the car in the charming village of La Lézioux, the starting point of the hike. A magnificent 16th-century flowered cross leads the way. The yellow markings will be the main thread of our walk.
Good surprise, we have the trail all to ourselves and it’s a real pleasure to be able to cross different types of landscape of the Natural Park of Millevaches in Limousin. We start on a small path lined with beech trees, dry stone walls and wild blueberry trees. Just next door our gaze embraces a peat bog, an opportunity to explain how this wetland works.
This walk is perfect for educating children about the environment by observing nature. We did a responsible gathering, the objective being to create a herbarium: oak leaves, chestnut, birch, hornbeam, beech, fern…
Pine cones, acorns and other twigs inspire another activity: land’art. According to one’s imagination or by being inspired by the creations of Marc Pouyet, artist-plastician, all these natural elements will become together a work of art.
Cherry on the cake or rather boletus in the omelette, this beautiful specimen found on the path.
Our opinion: we recommend this tour for the diversity of the landscapes and the viewpoints on the Limousin Mountain 😍. To do with children from 10 years old.
Stop in Gentioux. At the top of the Condreau (874 m), Our Lady of the Building, a statue made of Volvic stone built at the beginning of the 20th century, as a tribute to the Masons of Creuse.
After 10 minutes of ascent, the building, 7.50 m high is offered to you. You can discover on its pedestal the tools of the construction workers.
It took no less than sixteen oxen to install it up there!
A little history…
Chateaux of Versailles, Vaux-le-Vicomte, the Tuileries, Haussmannian Paris, the dike of La Rochelle… are examples of building sites on which “Les Maçons de La Creuse”have distinguished themselves.
Since the 15th century, the peasant-builders of Creuse leave home and family, from spring to Christmas, to work throughout France. They are masons, stone masons, earthworkers, carpenters, roofers, tile makers, painters or pit sawyers. In the 19th century, there were some 35,000 Creusois who perpetuated this temporary migration as a family.
