Hiking - Randonnée des trois évêchés
A panoramic stroll between mountains and valleys where streams and rivers flow, passing in front of Raffigny Castle and through the villages of Gâcogne and Mhère.
The Hamlets of Morvan
The Morvan is characterized by a very dispersed settlement pattern. Indeed, each commune has an average of 18 hamlets and a few isolated farms (écarts) where the majority of its inhabitants are concentrated. Most hamlets are old small agricultural clearings, cleared during the Middle Ages by a single family.
They are generally located neither on wind-exposed summits nor in cold, damp valley bottoms, but on mid-slope plateaus where the soil is best. They are connected to the agricultural and forest land by a network of gardens, paths, hedges, and low walls. These hamlets form close-knit communities, with the local dialect potentially differing from one hamlet to another. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, the local lord entrusted a serf family, often from central or eastern France, with land to cultivate in the forest after clearing it, granting them protection and usage rights in exchange for annual tasks (corvées) and shares of the harvests. Some hamlets have retained the names of the first families who settled there, such as l’Huis Picard, le Meix Garnier, les Bourdeaux ...
The Hamlets of Morvan
The Morvan is characterized by a very dispersed settlement pattern. Indeed, each commune has an average of 18 hamlets and a few isolated farms (écarts) where the majority of its inhabitants are concentrated. Most hamlets are old small agricultural clearings, cleared during the Middle Ages by a single family.
They are generally located neither on wind-exposed summits nor in cold, damp valley bottoms, but on mid-slope plateaus where the soil is best. They are connected to the agricultural and forest land by a network of gardens, paths, hedges, and low walls. These hamlets form close-knit communities, with the local dialect potentially differing from one hamlet to another. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, the local lord entrusted a serf family, often from central or eastern France, with land to cultivate in the forest after clearing it, granting them protection and usage rights in exchange for annual tasks (corvées) and shares of the harvests. Some hamlets have retained the names of the first families who settled there, such as l’Huis Picard, le Meix Garnier, les Bourdeaux ...