Fontaine salée et sources de la Sals (Sougraigne)

Sougraigne

At the very top of a small valley of the Hautes Corbières, at about 710 m altitude, salt-water springs give birth to the river Sals, the very one that then runs through Rennes-les-Bains. It is not a hot spring: the water comes out of salt-bearing ground and mixes with the stream. According to the Limouxin tourist office, this salt fed in the 17th century a real smuggling trade with neighbouring regions, in the time of the gabelle, the salt tax; in the forest remain the ruins of a farmstead known as the Fontaine Salée and those of an old barracks of the gabelous, the agents charged with tracking down smugglers. In the 19th century studies were carried out to exploit the site industrially; it is no longer exploited. The archaeologists of the association Salicorne have also recorded there remains of glassmakers' kilns of the 17th and 18th centuries: lords had settled gentlemen glassmakers here, who worked until the eve of the Revolution. A tourist brochure adds that the first inhabitants already came here to fetch salt and jet, without giving proof. In 1913 a press article on the baths of Rennes mentioned this salt water of the Salz, 10 km away, and a project to bring it to Rennes. A trail with explanatory panels, ‘Entre sel et verre’, goes around the place.

Getting there: Forêt domaniale de l'Eau Salée, from the car park of the Domaine de l'Eau Salée (Sougraigne); free visit all year, guided visit at €8 by reservation (tourist sheet, date not specified); waymarked loop ‘Entre sel et verre’ of about 2 km (1 h 30), with signs. Coordinates: OpenStreetMap node ‘Source d'Eau salée de la Sals’ (42.8922; 2.3999); Wikipédia FR gives 42.8945; 2.4007, about 260 m apart: approximate position to within a few hundred metres.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound