VILLAGE AND HILLSIDES OF 31 THE LIMARGUE f DIFFICULT f SITUATION : Fons, 12 kms north-west of , via the D840 f DÉPART : Salle des fêtes in Fons (car park there, and spaces along by the Doumelle towards the D840) GPS Coordinates : N 44.663603° E 1.953755°

DURATION : 4hrs. Difficile

LENGTH : 14 kms

WAYMARKING : Yellow 388 m

331 m THE MARKET PLACE… FONS 220 m Recently built, the little covered market of Fons is charming, with its fine wooden beams and rafters and its heavy stone pillars. It’s hard for us to imagine the intense commercial activity that once went on here. D Leave the car park. Turn right, on the sunken path. At the road, A stone grain measure is lodged safely beneath the structure. The control and checking of the instruments go past the road on the left, and, turn right and continue going up. At used for measuring, which were needed both for commerce and for fixing the proportion of the harvest due The countryside the bend, leave the road and set off at the iron wayside cross, go up the in lieu of taxes, is first recorded in 1255 in the context of the conflict between the prior and the «consuls» (± “around Fons, in the path to the left. At the junction, go opposite on the track with vehicle Limargue area, provides straight ahead on the grassy path. access. Go past the 1st path on the local councillors). The latter had had stone receptacles placed on the main square for measuring wheat. On the contrasting landscapes. At the road, take this, going straight right, and 200m further on at the T orders of the prior, some monks had gone down into the pits in front of which the measures were standing in order to remove them. However, they almost came to a sticky end, as the inhabitants very nearly buried them The severity of its «causses» on up to the D840. Cross this and junction, take the wide track to the take the track opposite. At the 1st right. Take the road opposite you alive in there ! is tempered by the leafy junction, continue straight ahead on up to la Remise, turn right after the chestnut woods which this track which becomes a path and farm then immediately left. Follow recall the Ségala area of the goes downhill. Take the little tarmac this path for 1.3 kms. At the road, . road opposite you, cross the bridge, turn left. At the crossroads, turn turn right and immediately left, after right then left straight away towards ” the 2nd bridge, towards . . TO SEE IN THE AREA… 30 m further on, turn right on to the 3 Continue along the road for 800m • : track. and fork right towards Lasaule, and Romanesque church, 1 At the petrifiyng fountain, turn Escaris. Carry on, going past 2 tracks pigeon-tower, old houses left and immediately right. When you and at the crossroads, take the road on • Fons : church, come to the road, cross it and take the right for 300m. Benedictine monastery, the tarmac track opposite towards 4 Turn right at a sharp angle on market hall and Pont-Aubard. Follow the Drauzou to the path between stone walls. «sarrazine» chimney up to the D840. Cross it and take the On the descent, fork left on the 1st little road opposite towards Plaisance. path which goes along the hillside f FOOD SHOPS/ After the first hairpin bend to the to the calvary statue. Continue the RESTAURANTS ETC right, go up to the left, in zig-zags, descent via the Way of the Cross, go Fons and Figeac on the track. At the 1st house, turn through the gateway and take the right, continue up to a road. Turn sentry-walk to the right leading f INFORMATION left, go past a junction and, at the to the fortified church. With your Grand Figeac fork, take the road on the right. Soon back to the gateway, go down the Lot and Célé Valley after la Renardière it becomes a grassy steps, then along the grassy path on Tourist Office track, then a path. At the end of this, the left. At the road, turn left then 05 65 34 06 25 turn left, then immediately right on immediately right to come out at the www.tourisme-figeac.com the little road. At the junction, take covered market place. At the road, the tarmac track almost opposite you, turn left then right straight away, going up towards la Balme. and follow the Dourmelle to get back 2 Cross the road to go up opposite to the Salle des Fêtes.