The Claparèdes plateau

17 points of interest

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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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  Savoir-faire

  Hard work and variable return

  The yields of lavender essential oil are varied but can reach about 15 kg per hectare and 80 kg for lavandin. Some lavender producers use a mechanized harvesting system where the plant (stem and flowers) is crushed and sent to a towed dump. The fact of distilling milling modifying the quality, this technique is not adapted to obtain an essential oil of fine lavender. Finally, the most beautiful bouquets are still cut manually with the sickle.

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  Savoir-faire

  A well orchestrated plantation!

  The plot is prepared one year before planting: plowing, weeding. The planting is done after the big frosts. The implantation is more or less mechanized. The density of plants is 12,000 to 15,000 plants per hectare for lavender and 8,000 to 10,000 plants per hectare for lavandin. A lavender plantation remains in place for about 10 years. It is in production from the 2nd year and optimal yields in essential oil are obtained between the 4th and 6th year.

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  Patrimony and history

  The '' star '' of the bories!

  The nearby borie is one of the most famous of the plateau (private, absolute respect). This type of construction requires real expertise, as much in the choice of stones as in their clever and smart assembly. To build in dry stone, so without mortar, it takes patience, a good look, and good notions of balance. A borie can weigh between 30 and 200 tons and uses 200,000 to 300,000 stones. Each of them has passed 2 or 3 times in the hands of the manufacturer!

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  Fauna

  Midge attack

  The midge, Resseliella lavandulae is an insect subservient to lavanderaies. The adult emerges from the ground in winter to reproduce, then dies quickly. Females lay their eggs in anfractuosities of bark of branches. These white and pink-orange larvae are responsible for the drying of the attacked branches (silver aspect). Emerging traps often built with drums, allow to capture the adults as soon as they leave the ground.

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  Savoir-faire

  Patience and recycling

  Prior to distillation, harvested beans can remain on the field for a time to dry out and lose excess water. This prefanage of about one or two days is essential for fine lavender: it avoids modifying the quality of essential oil. In stills where the vats are equipped with basket with hoist, the flowers are not mixed with water. In the neighboring fields, the lavender straw after distillation was deposited and then used as fuel.

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  Patrimony and history

  Multiple Bories

  The shepherds have probably built the single-celled huts and the peasants the bories of larger dimensions. It seems accepted that most of these constructions were built between the eighteenth and nineteenth century. 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.

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  Patrimony and history

  Let's save the heritage trail!

  This old rural road was brought to light in the 1970s by François and Claude Morenas, tireless pioneers of itineraries. In the 2000s, it was the Park with the help of the department that worked to safeguard it against the real estate pressure. Today it is perennial, registered in the Departmental Plan of Walk and Hiking, it benefits from the maintenance and tagging action of the Vaucluse department, but also by the supervision of volunteers, walkers or mountain bikers.

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  Elevage et pastoralisme

  Long live the diversity, long live Life!

  Dedicated to a traditional agro-sylvo-pastoral system, the Claparèdes plateau is divided between forests, lawns and dry crops, but also groves surrounded by hedges of old trees, including almond trees and mulberries, witnesses of a past culture. The interface and transition zones between all these ecosystems (ecotonal zones) are very favorable to a diversified fauna: birds such as the lark lulu and the sparrow zizi, but also reptiles such as the grass snake, the worm and the ocellated lizard.

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  Panorama

  A postcard scenery...

  The Luberon is visible from everywhere and very present in the landscape. It is also a wonderful spur which reveals wide panoramas of Mont Ventoux and the Alps to the north from the Claparèdes plateau. Do not miss the purple mottling of the lavender from June to July. Contemporary human presence is rare but the few farms, bories, dry stone walls resulting from field stone removal are the proof of an earlier human presence.

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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

  "Lou Camin Salié"

  & Laquo; "Lou Camin Salié" or salt road were the roads used formerly by salt merchants with their caravans of mules from the Etang de Berre. A popular condiment at the time, you had to be cunning and clever to avoid thieves and bandits. Thus, merchants passed through less accessible but more secure paths. A former salt road, the path you are currently on came from Sivergues to reach Apt through this place called "Salen", to the left.

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  Flora

  The Fragrant Bug Orchid

  This small crossing of a slightly wet marl hill may be an opportunity, in the months of May and June, to discover a small vanilla-scented orchid: the aptly named Fragrant Bug Orchid (Anacamptis coriophora subsp. fragrans). Quite rare in France where it is found only in the southern part, it is strictly protected there. So let's carry away her scent in our memories!

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  Patrimony and history

  The art of the "calade" (cobblestone pavements)

  The public roadway heritage still shows remnants of facilities necessary for important human activity in the valley during the past centuries, the cobblestone path portions are the proof. The remains of the calades, pavings with cobblestones placed roughly, can be seen near the passages in the river or when climbing towards the Claparèdes plateau and Sivergues.

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  Flora

  Meadows, a rare natural heritage

  These meadows scattered over the valley bottom are the legacy of the work of nature and man. This well-watered area benefits a wide variety of plants and insects (butterflies, dragonflies ...). And with a little bit of luck, we can flush out a seps, a kind of slow worm with legs ... Grazing has shaped these clearings at a time when small herds could access easily. Targeted bush clearing must be able to restore them while preserving the surrounding riparian forest.