Fontaine Saint-Pardoux de Bugeat

Bugeat

At Bugeat, on the plateau de Millevaches, the fontaine Saint-Pardoux gushes in the quartier du Moulin, below the rue du Pont des Rochers. A small monument marks the spring: a block of stone in the shape of a stele, engraved ‘S PARDOUX’ on one side and ‘1891’ on the other, with above it a small granite cross whose top is missing. This cross is a reused fragment, with a face of Christ. Saint Pardoux is the patron saint of the parish. According to a work of 2000 cited by Wikipédia, the fountain was reputed to cure eye ailments, and a pilgrimage was made there on the saint's feast day, 6 October. In 1899 the journalist Gaston Vuillier, passing through the upper Corrèze, wrote that it ‘sourd sur une pente’ and is ‘réputée pour guérir les maux d'yeux’; he left a drawing of it published in Le Tour du monde. In 2016 the association Les Amis du Pays de Bugeat reopened the access path. Next to it are a wash-house, where the women of the village rinsed their laundry, and a granite slab bridge.

Getting there: Quartier du Moulin, below the rue du Pont des Rochers, at Bugeat. The path was reopened in 2016 with the agreement of the landowners (Wikipédia); present condition not verified. A wash-house is a little higher up and a bridge of granite slabs a little lower. Coordinates: those of the fountain's Wikipédia sheet, not cross-checked.

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

Ambient sound