To the east of the village of Malaucène, visiting the Groseau site and the vale of Gipières (where they used to mine gypsum) plunges you right into the village's religious and industrial past.
On this walk you will see Groseau chapel (12th century) and the eponymous spring. Just before the spring, the footpath (white/red markings) takes you to the former Plâtrières gypsum mine, which was open from 1920 to 1955.
(site now closed).
Then, little by little, the natural environment became more wild, and now offers typical mountain landscapes. There's also the chance to see well-protected wildlife: the short-toed treecreeper (a pretty passerine bird with a beak adapted to picking insects from tree trunks), the sardinian warbler with its black head that lives in the undergrowth, or even (with a bit of luck) the splendid short-toed snake eagle which feeds on small snakes and is distinguished by its majestic flight.
Guidebook available in intercommunal Ventoux Provence Tourist Office information points.
"When visiting a Protected Natural Site, take suitable measures and behave appropriately: do not remove species, do not pick flowers, collect your litter, stay quiet so as not to disturb the wildlife, and keep to marked paths."
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