The best MTB trails around Cabrespine

Narrow passage with worn ruts from cart wheels... (Roman?)

In the heart of the Montagne Noire in the Aude, in a mountain cirque, Castans spreads its seven hamlets: Bourdials, Escandelle, Lafargue, Laviale, Quintaine, Raissac, and Thérondels. The Clamoux, (etymology Clamous: the one who shouts), a rushing river, has its source there and collects seven streams which rib the landscapes of forests of chestnut trees, oaks, beeches, conifers, moors of ferns, heather and ridge lawns.

interesting and sporty discovery tour

The village of Pradelles-Cabardès, located at an altitude of 830 m at the foot of the Pic de Nore, took advantage of its climatic characteristics to develop a small industry in the mid-19th century based on ice production, for which demand was growing in the surrounding lowland regions. The first private icehouse for professional and commercial use was built and operated by Pierre Piquemol in 1849[2]. His son built five more in 1859. This activity gradually expanded in the commune and became a thriving business. The blocks of ice, loaded onto horse-drawn carts, were delivered to the lowland. The icehouses served the Carcassonne and Narbonne regions to the south, and the Mazamet and Castres regions to the north. Later, with the development of the railway, ice from Pradelles was delivered to various major cities in the south: Toulouse, Bordeaux, and Perpignan. But from the beginning of the 20th century with the appearance of artificial ice, the trade declined. The war of 14/18 which requisitioned men and horses dealt a fatal blow to this activity. After the armistice, only two icehouses continued their activity, that of Jean Pech which closed in 1925 and that of Jules Assémat which remained in operation until 1927. (Wikipedia)

The Pradelles-Cabardès icehouses[1] are old icehouses consisting of semi-buried pits built in the 19th century. They were used for the production and storage of blocks of ice for sale. (Wikipedia)

Departure for the Roc de l'Aigle

Save your energy for the last 5km, be careful when it's windy.

We like to compare, the Pic de Nore is a small Ventoux, its climbs from Mazamet or Villeneuve-Minervois are not as steep as that of the Ventoux from Bédoin but they still have to be earned. They are 17 and 22 km respectively, have an average gradient of 5.5% and 4.56%, with a maximum gradient of 11.8% and 10%. For my part, I chose to join Pradelles-Cabardès via the forests from Limousis, passing in particular the Soulanes de Nore, I was treated to some good slopes with a double-digit percentage ... Two legends would explain its name: in the first it is the fairy Nore who, annoyed by the damage caused to the crops by the Cers wind, would have planted her pike in the ground there, and as if by magic the rocks would have accumulated around to form the Pique de Nore. In the second, the wind of Cers is still blamed for its damage to human crops, not only there, and it is Nore, Bug and Arach who went to complain to Jupiter. Jupiter does not like to be disturbed, he transformed Nore into a mountain and Bug and Arach into the summit of Bugarach ...