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welcome
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welcome
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The pungent scents, the
vivacious light and the soothing chirp of the cicadas have survived
thousands of years in the confined insularity of the La Clape Heights.
Getting into these hills is to encounter a world apart. |
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The Massif de
la Clappe is a fragile environment with a special microclimate. Swept on
the one hand by the
Cers , the
dry north
wind, and on the other, by the
Marin that
billows salty mists in off the sea, La Clape is home to a very
individual cohort of plant species, including some very scarce ones such
as the Centaurea corymbosa, endemic to the
La Clape and occurring only rarely even here. Such plants are the joy of
botanists striking out from the nearby village of Gruissan. |
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Balade dans la
Clape
La Clape
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The
Massif de la Clape - "stone" in local dialect - was,
until recent geological time, an actual island. This insularity,
still apparent in the landscape, has given rise to a
particularly rich and original variety of plant and animal life.
Today, the La Clappe Heights remain one of those unusual,
spellbound places where modem man can still feel, with ahnost
every step he takes, the imprint of his long-gone ancestors. |
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The
Oeil Doux is a natural waterhole surrounded by cliffs with an abrupt
eastern face overhanging the surface 130 feet below (40m). The cliff is
made of hard fissured limestone whose crevices are full of red clay; it
was formed during the middle geological era. The north side, less steep,
is made of marly limestone from an older geological age and is
particularly rich in fossile deposits, notably Orbolitines
(Mesorbitolna
texana), Brachypodes, Lamellibranches and sea urchins (dating
from the Clansayesian period). The presence of this hole at this site
can be explained by the fragility of the wider area which displays many
faults; two of them major.
The water in
the hole is salty : the salinity, as well as the level, varies with the
rainfall and the movements of the Mediterranean just a mile (1,500m)
away. The whole zone is part of a submerged karstic formation. The water
table penetrates into the zone, part of a network that appears to plunge
far below the 110 foot (35m ) depth of the waterhole. Connections to the
sea via this underground network, together with leaching, explain the
variations in surface level and salinity. |
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As a
place of refuge or mere haven of easy existence, La Clape has
been home to man since prehistoric times. At numerous sites
there are still traces of Neolithic settlements. Later on, the
Romans built splendid villas here : they considered the heights
a priviledged, healthy spot compared to the coast itself which,
at that time, was infested with moquitoes.
It is on the sites of these former Roman villas that today the
only residences in the La Clape hills, the wine estates, are to
be found.
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The wines of La
Clape boast a lineage going back to 600 B.C. and are a delight to
taste.
The plant life is exceptionally rich and in the course of a walk
you can find bilberry, yarrow 'Venus's smile' is a local name -
orchids in quantity, fixmitory ...
These plants help make up the typical Mediterranean brushland
known in France as the garrigue, and have been used in the
traditional production of elixirs and other potent brews. |
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