DISCOVER LA GARDIOLE ON MOUNTAIN BIKE

1

Entrance via Mireval Departure from Mireval is via a communal parking lot near the Muscat cooperative cellar. From the village center, one of the highlights is the Eglise Sainte Eulalie de Mérida, a curious church set into the urban fabric, with a facade dominated by a "bell tower-porch" flanked by two stair turrets and two side doors.

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Cisterns in the massif To extinguish a fire, you need a bucket of water after 1 minute, and a fire engine after 10 minutes! These 30,000-litre tanks are used for rapid intervention. Water trucks fill them as they go along. On La Gardiole, some of the tanks have been graffitied with acrylic spray paint by an association of artists called Line up.

3

Reading the landscape towards the Mediterranean and the Marais de la Grande Palude The etymology of the name Gardiole expresses a place from which to look. The massif offers magnificent views over the expanses of water that make up the sea and the ponds.

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Airplane runway Approximately 500 meters long, this forest air strip was created by the Hérault department to facilitate the arrival of emergency services in the event of fire.

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Pine forests planted in the garrigue Mission Racine was set up in 1963 to carry out major works to develop the Mediterranean coastline until 1983. To accompany this development, reforestation operations were planned, in particular to combat erosion of the massif.

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Oil well These 2 concrete tanks were used in 1947 when Total or Compagnie Pétrolière drilled for oil. They were used to prepare the mud that was injected into the casing to lubricate the tool that drilled to the bottom. It was drilled to a depth of 1995 meters! But the results were negative. Nevertheless, the drilling did help us to understand that the entire Massif de la Gardiole and the Causse d'Aumelas opposite, slid more than 20 km northwards when the Pyrenees were formed.

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A pond below Natural ponds and hunters' ponds. These waterholes are fragile sites of biodiversity. Amphibians, odonates, birds and other animals seek refuge here.

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DFCI tank To extinguish a fire, you need a bucket of water after 1 minute, and a fire engine after 10 minutes! These 30,000-litre tanks are used for rapid intervention. Water trucks fill them as they go. On La Gardiole, some of the tanks have been graffitied with acrylic spray paint by an association of artists called Line up.

9

Reading the landscape towards the Fabrègues/Poussan plain Between the last slopes of the Massif de la Gardiole at your feet, and in the distance the hills of La Moure where the wind turbines tower, stretches the plain, inhabited and cultivated. Imagine the fledgling Mediterranean, some 20 million years ago, moving into an arm of the sea, isolating La Gardiole and depositing sediments teeming with giant oysters and sharks' teeth. Until the First World War, this fertile plain was farmed by large landowners. Small farmers had taken over the arid slopes of La Gardiole, spiked their meagre plots and built low walls and dry-stone huts. Flocks of sheep roamed the garrigue. With the advent of cooperative winegrowing, the plains reverted to smallholders, vines dominated and the last plots of garrigue were abandoned.

https://www.agglopole.fr/bougerdecouvrir/se-divertir/les-sentiers-de-randonnee-et-circuits-vtt

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