A cascade, a ford, and the ghost of a former mine
My Part 2 of the Creusefond stream takes the water down a steep scarp off what I think of as the Auxy plateau. The forest by us climbs to a wide flat area which is the plateau: part forest, part farmland dotted with villages (five or six communes, at least, with their varied mairies), hamlets and farms. It stretches down Celtic paths to Marmagne (you love it or you hate it) and, to the east to Couches and wine-growing and the Côte d’Or. I call it the Auxy plateau. The nearest of the villages on the plateau for us is Auxy with its substantial mairie, its Tilleul Henry IV and – my favourite restaurant around here – Le Restaurant l’alcien (which means a restaurant pertaining – I can’t think how else to say it – to Auxy: and yes the adjective’s first letter is lower case). Auxy, the restaurant and all that is for another day.
The Creusefond stream crosses a forest path two kilometres from Auxy and where I left it in Part 1 of this short series. Immediately across the path it descends the northern scarp slope of the plateau, through around 100 metres (nearly 350 feet) and over a distance of 300 metres to a valley below. I shall name this the Creusefond cascade. The photo is the best I could do on the grey day I went there.
I wlke up the short path to the scarp, where the stream tumbled down the scarp. As I walked I could hear the Creusefond stream as it coursed on nearby me.
After its cascade the stream falls quickly through the forest, across a field below Collonges les Chataigniers. It joins the path from our forest area. It flows deep – after all the recent rain – across the path and ford below the farm- and other few houses in Collonges.
The photo shows the ford (gué) along the path. The bridge we found last year is still there; but when I had crossed the bridge a week ago I could not be sure that I would not soak my feet by paddling along the further end of the gué. That turbulent stream was a path last year; and no more than a little damp.
I turned back that day. I returned next day by bicycle and on foot to find the Creusefond cascade.
According to my IGN map somewhere around the path I took up the valley to the cascade is the Ancienne Mine de Pauvray’ (the former mine of Pauvray). On the West side of the valley is Pauvray hill. I have not seen any obvious evidence of a mine in the valley, yet; though there are lines of large boulders near the bottom of the cascade. Is this some sort of evidence of a former mine?
David Burrows
17 March 2024
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