Source de Burle

Gorges du Tarn Causses (Sainte-Énimie)

At the foot of the cliffs of the Tarn gorges wells up a karst resurgence whose very clear water verges on blue: this is the fountain of Burle, around which the village of Sainte-Énimie was built. The legend, set down in the 13th century by the monk Bertran de Marseilha in an Occitan poem, tells how Énimie, daughter of Clotaire II and sister of King Dagobert, refused the marriage imposed on her and asked God to preserve her: she was at once struck with leprosy and disfigured, which drove away her suitors. Guided in a dream towards a fountain in an unknown land, she at last reached Burle, bathed there and recovered her beauty — but the disease returned each time she tried to move away from the spring. Understanding that her place was there, she remained in a cave on the causse, worked miracles there, and founded the monastery from which the village grew. The chronicle adds that a water spirit, the Drac, guardian of the Tarn, destroyed each night what the workmen built by day; Énimie pursued him to the defile where the demon tried to flee underground. Rocks then tumbled down from the ledges and the Roque Sourde held him prisoner, while the Roche Aiguille, an 80 m monolith, toppled in its turn — needlessly, says the legend through the mouth of the Sourde: "I have him fast." The place has been called the Pas de Soucy ever since; geologists read in it two successive collapses, one of which may correspond to the earthquake of 580 recorded by Gregory of Tours.

Lozère Tourisme — La source de Burle ↗

Getting there : Below the village of Sainte-Énimie (new commune of Gorges du Tarn Causses), beside the road through the gorges; free access all year round, a few minutes' walk from the medieval village. The rock chaos of the Pas de Soucy, the legend's second setting, lies a dozen kilometres downstream on the D907bis, with a laid-out viewpoint (the Roc des Hourtous and the lookout over the Sourde).

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

Ambient sound