Top 5 nature walks around Millau

Le Cade, in the extension of the Pouncho d’Agast, is dear to the hearts of Millavois. It has to be said that, just a few kilometers from Millau, this easy stroll has everything to please. Like a “little house on the prairie”, the magnificent Ferme du Cade is surprisingly beautiful, in its Caussen style and bucolic setting. Crossing the black pine forests of the Causse Noir is anything but gloomy, quite the contrary, especially enhanced by carpets of bearberry and other flowers with an exceptional palette of shapes and colors. Passing along the Corniches de la Dourbie offers a series of captivating panoramas both of the Dourbie valley floor and of Larzac, opposite, or the outskirts of Millau.The Fontaine del Salze (du Saule) still flows even if its multiple stone “troughs” struggle to fill up. And don’t forget to look up to appreciate vautours and paragliders…

• Loop: 7 km
• Duration: 2h
• Yellow markings
• Dogs welcome, on leash

Remarkable biodiversity, an unsuspected natural water reserve, a carbon trap on a par with oceans and forests… a nature trail to discover the richness and functioning of a peat bog, but also and above all the fragility of this wetland ecosystem. A peat bog is an open-air history book! Follow the signs along the pathways; they’ll reveal the secrets of this brownish-black rock that allows you to go back in time by imprisoning plant and animal fragments, of these carpets of vegetation (sphagnum moss, drosera, carnivorous plants), of the many butterflies and other small inhabitants of the Rauzes. In this environment also graze a few Scottish Highland Cattle, big red balls of hair with long horns, very photogenic.
They are the gardeners of the place, grazing on invasive plants.

• Loop: 2 to 3km
• Duration: 1h30 to 2h
• Groomed and panelled path

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To each his own… Dogs welcome, on a leash

Don’t hesitate to drop by the tourist office for your map and the day’s good deals.
Starting from the tourist office, in the heart of Millau’s historic center, just wander through the town’s medieval and artisanal lanes, away from the main traffic arteries, to emerge in a few minutes on the Quais de la Tannerie and Sully-Chaliès, on the banks of the Tarn River. The Millau Viaduct and the Larzac foothills set the scene.

Going upstream on the Tarn comes the Plage Gourg-de-Bades (swimming, fishing, children’s games, pétanque…), then your choice of high up on the quays or along the water’s edge along a pan of graff and street-art expression. Upstream, the new shaded promenade faces the Pouncho d’Agast and its myriad paragliders. At the sports complex (skate park, swimming pool, climbing wall, city park…), a floating footbridge connects to the left bank of the Tarn, its campsites and nature activities (accrobranches, bikepark, mountain biking, hang-gliding, canoeing…).

At the confluence of the Tarn and the Dourbie, it’s the latter that we skip to reach the plain of Graufesenque (archaeological site) and the Trace Verte du Viaduc to the Ile de la Maladrerie and the Parc Aqua Vagues (whitewater stadium).

You can choose between the water-level footbridge or the Pont Lerouge and its adjacent Vieux Moulin to reach the quays and the old town.