Tour du Cros et Jalleït par les Chalets de Clapeyto - Arvieux

6 points of interest

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  Fauna

  The Damon blue (Polyommatus damon)

  This small butterfly likes dry bushy places and open woods. As a caterpillar, it spends winter tended by ants. It becomes a butterfly in July and August in one generation. Sexual dimorphism characterizes the species. The back of the female is brown and that of the male blue with a wide grey border and protruding ribs. The other side of the wings is white with ochre rings and a white line across the hind wing, which also has black spots ringed with white.

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  Elevage et pastoralisme

  Pastoral huts

  Usually dating from the 20th century and rudimentary in their construction, pastoral huts often comprised of only one room. The comfort was Spartan and shepherds used them when looking after their herds in summer. As sheep and cows changed pasture over the season, shepherds also had to change huts depending on the chosen pasture.

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  Patrimony and history

  Lime kilns

  Lime is the result of limestone calcination. Between 800°C and 1000°C, the stones transform into quicklime, which is then immersed under water. Once cool, quicklime takes the form of a paste, which is called slaked lime. It has been used in construction for millennia. Many furnaces can still be found in the Queyras. Although very few written records remain, lime manufacturing must have played a role in the local economy.

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  Geology

  Fossils

  Pangaea disappeared 250 million years ago. The continents broke apart and an ocean called Tethys was created where the Alps now stand. The local rivers and streams met this ocean, carrying tons of waste, rock tailings, dead animals and trees, all piling up and superimposing at the bottom of the ocean. The more this material accumulated, the higher the pressure on the lower layers. This pressure transformed the scattered matter into what is called sedimentary rock. The ammonite fossil you can see here dates from this period.

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  Elevage et pastoralisme

  Vue sur les chalets de Clapeyto

  Les chalets d’alpage datent en général du début du XIXe s. Construit grâce à une forme d’entraide : la corvée, ils sont construits à partir de matériaux locaux comme la terre, le bois et la chaux. Dans la vallée d’Arvieux, les hommes y montaient fin juillet faire les foins. Les bêtes arrivaient à la mi-août, conduites par les vieux et les enfants qui restaient sur place jusqu’au démontagnage en fin septembre. L’activité principale était la production et la transformation du lait. A la  fin du XIXe s., ce fonctionnement a disparu et les troupeaux ont été confiés directement aux bergers.

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  Water and rivers

  Cigarette butts

  A cigarette butt left in nature can take up to 15 years to degrade. One cigarette butt can pollute 500 litres of water during this period.