Saignon, La Gardette path

15 points of interest

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  Patrimony and history

  Saignon, stronghold of history

  The strategic situation of observation and defense make Saignon a privileged place of group occupation from the Iron Age (-750 years to -125 years). In Antiquity, with the arrival of the Romans (124 av. JC), Saignon is organized around Apta Julia, Via Domitia and large surrounding farms. At the fall of the Roman Empire (in 476), the feudal society was structured around the Castra (fortified castle) of Saignon and enriched with neighboring religious monuments (St. Eusebius, St. Savior, etc.).

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  Geology

  The arrival of the sea in Provence

  In the Miocene, 20 million years ago, the sea transgresses and covers Provence. We can now visualize its arrival in the geological layers. A first layer of green sands, corresponds to the old coastline. Glauconite, a mineral rich in iron giving this green tint, is formed in shallow waters. These sands are surmounted by a conglomerate of pebbles, sometimes green as well, carried by the arrival of the sea. Above, once the sea settled, a sedimentary rock settled: the molasse.

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  Geology

  The Miocene molasse

  The molasse is a rock: a sandstone limestone biodetitic (which contains grains of sand and also a lot of various fossil debris). This yellowish sedimentary rock settled in the sea, around the Luberon which formed then an island or a shoal. It keeps track of the deposition conditions in agitated environment, in the form of channels and oblique stratifications. Resistant to erosion, it forms vast plateaus like that of Claparèdes!

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  Panorama

  Saint-Pierre who are you?

  On the Claparèdes plateau, the Grand Luberon and the Mourre Negro summit (1,125 m) are very present in the landscape. But here, this promontory offers to the northwest a window on the Mont-Ventoux, then a sight on the Monts-de-Vaucluse, with full north the summit of Saint-Pierre on La-Garde-d'Apt; the real culmination of the territory of the Luberon Park with its 1,256 m of altitude. In the foreground, the Wells hill and the Caseneuve plateau which conceal Colorado Provençal.

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  Patrimony and history

  The Claparèdes plateau

  Claparèdes comes from "clapàs" which means piles of stones in Provençal. The peasants have always collected the stones from the fields to improve their land, they remained in heaps or were used for dry stone constructions. Many bories and low walls are present on this part of the plateau which extends between Saignon and Auribeau. La Gardette, former cereal land, is now heavily invaded by woods.

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  Patrimony and history

  A Saignon of the protohistoric period?

  On La Gardette, regularly spaced piles of stones with comparable volumes (3 m3), are not collapsed huts of the Neolithic (-100 000 years), nor the ruins of a Saignon of the protohistory (-750 years). These hutches are the result of ancestral terroiring of the soil and have been piled up on sacrificed areas following the exhaustion of the soil. There is nothing extraordinary, then, that Neolithic tools, collected during stone removal, were found in hutches.

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  Patrimony and history

  Bories hide and seek!

  Here on each side of the two walls, hides under the underbrush a multitude of small bories. A borie is an original construction by the unique use of stone and its technique of assembly. The covering or the vault is called corbelled; it is a technique that consists of laying the stones in sitting with passing from the top row to the bottom. The oldest would have collapsed following their abandonment. Those still in place would not be more than 3 or 4 centuries old.

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  Panorama

  Cape to the east!

  This belvedere open to the east offers a beautiful view of the Calavon Valley which occupies a synclinal basin (= fold form of the layers of land drawing a depression) well marked in the landscape. South of the syncline stands the great anticlinal massif (fold vault) of the Luberon. To the north is the Montagne de Lure, another anticlinal massif. And in the background, to the east, the Prealps, which are snow-covered until spring, block the horizon.

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  Patrimony and history

  SOS trails!

  This old rural road was brought to light in the 1980s by François and Claude Morenas, tireless pioneers of itineraries. Some traces of old blue markings still persist. In autumn 2016, the Vaucluse departmental committee of hiking with the technical support of the Park, organized a day of clearing volunteers on this path. Then in March 2017, it was with the Lycée Agricole La Ricarde of Isle-sur-la-Sorgue that the signage was completely redone.

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  Patrimony and history

  Traces of carts

  On this old road that connected the fields to neighboring farms but also Buoux and Auribeau, you can easily notice notches cut and worn in two successive outcrops of rock. An additional testimony of the ancestral agricultural activity taking place on the Claparèdes plateau...

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  Patrimony and history

  Morenas, innkeeper but also ...

  François Morenas was the owner of the former Regain Youth Hostel, nearby. Today deceased, he is the precursor of the first paths of great hikes of Provence. On the way, you will notice traces of blue paint, remain of his markings. Creator of hiking routes since 1953, he was also a writer and a traveling filmmaker! In Saignon, every summer, in the open air, there are still screenings of old films proudly preserved by F. Morenas and his friends.

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  Produits du terroir

  Ancestral Lavender

  The lavender fields adorn the Luberon landscapes, which they colour at the beginning of the summer with blue-mauve streaks. Coming from the west of the Mediterranean basin, lavender was already used by the Romans to preserve linen and perfume baths. In the dry hills of Provence, wild lavender was used since the Middle Ages for its perfume but also in the composition of drugs. It is harvested during hot weather that promotes the rise of gasoline in the flower.

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  Patrimony and history

  Walls murmur

  Along the path but also everywhere in the undergrowth, you will notice the many alignments of walls following the ancient stonework and dry stone retaining walls. These constructions today neglected, they formerly comforted the terraces cultivated in restanque ("bancaou" in Provençal). These walls let the runoff water while containing the earth for subsistence crops; ? essentially wheat and fodder for the animals.

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  Patrimony and history

  Traditional building

  The large farms are the result of successive enlargements, in function of the needs of the operation. The mas in";L ;shape "is oriented south-east, offering protection against the mistral (which blows north-west). The openings are absent to the north and rather narrow elsewhere to protect themselves from heat in summer and cold in winter. At the bottom of the main body were the living rooms and the animals because of the heat releases. Upstairs, the bedrooms and attics.

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  Flora

  The guil, toxic and medicinal plant!

  The mistletoe (Viscum album album) is a parasitic plant that lives at the expense of a host tree, as here an almond tree. Its toxicity is linked to the presence of proteins. Ingestion may cause diarrhea and abdominal pain. But mistletoe, blessed with extraordinary virtues in ancient and Germanic mythology, was famous until the nineteenth century to cure epilepsy. Today, his preparations find an indication in hypertonia, hypotension, arteriosclerosis.