Mont Gargan et chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours

Saint-Gilles-les-Forêts

Mont Gargan is the high point of the southern Limousin, at 731 m, with a view stretching from the Millevaches plateau to the Monédières and as far as the summits of the Auvergne. Its name has fed a popular tradition linking it to the giant Gargantua; linguists also suggest an origin in a root meaning "to swallow, to devour", or in a pre-Indo-European prefix "gar" denoting rock, without settling the matter. On the summit stand the consolidated ruins of a neo-Gothic chapel, Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours, built of local granite between 1868 and 1871; it regained its bell in 2011 and the departmental council, its owner, has partly reopened it to the public after works funded to the tune of 13,000 euros. Below, the fountain of the Buisson Blanc is reputed by local devotion never to run dry. A listed site since 1983, it combines panorama and Marian devotion.

La chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours s'ouvre au public — Département de la Haute-Vienne ↗

Getting there : Summit shared between Saint-Gilles-les-Forêts and La Croisille-sur-Briance, some forty kilometres south-east of Limoges. Car park at the foot of the summit, then a path of about 2.2 km serving the chapel and the orientation tables; not suitable for pushchairs. The chapel, owned by the Haute-Vienne département, has recently been fitted with railings that allow visitors into its first bay.

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

Ambient sound