Cirque de Tournemire

First, you will notice the imposing height of the cirque's cliffs, the limestone screes at their base, and the "black lands" around the village. The vast "millefeuille" of rocks that make up the cirque's geology began more than 280 million years ago when the gigantic Hercynian chain - formed during the Carboniferous period (from 360 to 299 Ma) - started to erode and locally fill a large basin at the current location of the Grands Causses.

When the sea invaded this basin, sediments continued to deposit at the same time as the shells or skeletons of living organisms of that era... It is thus that in marls dating back 180 million years, the fossil of a "Plesiosaur" skeleton unique in the world was discovered in 1986. Since then, the formidable predator and the sea it inhabited have disappeared, giving way to the mineral landscapes of the Grands Causses.

We invite you - here in Tournemire - to discover the natural treasures that the Cirque de Tournemire today shelters! You can indeed observe many remarkable birds such as the Eurasian eagle-owl, the golden eagle, the subalpine warbler, the wallcreeper, the red-billed chough, or even discreet bats. You will also discover plant species adapted to the relief and rocks, sometimes to the Mediterranean climate, such as Hoppe's scrophularia or large-fruited alison.

You can observe there: nearly 78 bird species, 17 bat species, 6 amphibian species, 7 dragonfly species, nearly 27 butterfly species.