Les carrières de Touvérac

Carrières de Touvérac: nature is so beautiful, let's respect it!

In ancient times, the Massif Central was a large mountainous island. Very slowly, it eroded, the granite altered, the minerals dissolved, the grains of silica became sand, the feldpaths and micas altered to give clays.
Major climatic changes lead to heavy rainfall, transporting sands and clays over hundreds of kilometres. The finest kaolin-type clays are deposited in the south of the Charentes region, where the climate is tropical.
Kaolin is nothing other than the white earth found deep in the Touvérac area. It was in the late 1960s that AGS began extracting this famous clay with its many properties: fineness, purity and whiteness, qualities that have led to its use in refractory bricks, ceramics, the chemical industry and biotechnology. Covered by a lot of sediment, you have to dig to find it. Thousands of m3 are removed before the clay lenses that can be mined are found: the spoil is then stored near the quarries, forming new hills called waste rock.
Mining lasted until 2000, creating 4 successive bodies of water, changing the landscape and giving the site its distinctive morphology. Quarrying has sometimes created steep slopes, creating veritable cliffs above the bodies of water. Where the slopes are gentler, the particularly light-coloured, bare soils seem to have been scratched: the run-off water has created numerous gullies. The substrates uncovered are poor in nutrients and not conducive to the rapid expression of life.
The quarry workers planted pine trees on the waste rock as the new quarries were opened, to stabilise the soil and quickly green the area. The last excavation pits were left in water: the impermeability of the soil allowed them to be filled in.
In 1996, having been made aware of the ecological and educational value of this area by naturalist associations, the owner and quarryman AGS entrusted its management to the Conservatoire d'Espaces Naturels de Nouvelle-Aquitaine (CEN) under a thirty-year lease. The cessation of quarrying has allowed the return of the acid and clay environments typical of this area: heather moorland, grassland, ponds and reedbeds. As far as the woodland is concerned, oak and chestnut trees are being maintained and thinning of pine trees has allowed the return of shrubby heathland vegetation, where the yellow of gorse blends with the mauve of heather.
A number of rare plant species, such as the Piment royal and the Simethis à feuilles planes, indicate the acidic nature of the environment. These varied habitats are home to an equally diverse fauna: the discreet European pond terrapin, sunbathing on the trunks lying in the ponds; the southern tree frog, with its flamboyant green colour, clinging firmly to the branches of a gorse; or the European nightjar and its characteristic song at dusk.
Management operations are carried out by the Conservatoire, such as improving pine plantations by thinning them to give deciduous trees back their rightful place in the quarry landscape, restoring and maintaining open environments such as moorland and reed beds, and reopening cliffs to accommodate nesting species. Integration companies or school projects are regularly brought in to carry out this management work, all of which is carried out in collaboration with the various players in the area. They are set out in a management document approved by a scientific council.

There is a signposted 4km discovery trail (approx. 2 hours). It allows you to make two loops around the four former quarries and soak up the different landscapes that the site has to offer.
Although this natural area is designed to welcome the public, it is essential to respect a few rules so as not to disturb this fragile natural environment:
- Swimming and any other nautical activity is strictly forbidden.
- Stay on the marked paths to avoid trampling and disturbance of the species
- Camping and bonfires are prohibited, as this is a forested area at high risk of fire.
- Waste must be taken along in your bags
- Dogs must be kept on a lead
- It is dangerous to approach the edge of the cliffs. Viewpoints have been set up for safe observation.