From Le Poujol, the D180 winds up through cherry orchards to the village of COMBES , where the
Auberge de Combes (tel 04.67.95.66.55, fax 04.67.95.63.49; €24-34; Oct-May weekends only; restaurant from €12.96) offers both
gîte d'étape and chambres d'hôte accommodation , and on through the Forêt des Écrivains-Combattants
, named after the French writers who died in World War I. Just above
the hamlet of Rosis, the road levels out in a small mountain valley,
whose slopes are brilliant yellow with broom in June.
A left fork leads to the hamlet of DOUCH
, beneath the summit of Le Caroux - a perfect place where time seems
really to have stood still. Half-a-dozen rough stone houses, inhabited
by a handful of elderly residents, cluster tightly together for
protection against the elements. There's a gîte d'étape (tel 04.67.95.65.76) and a
ferme auberge
that provides meals in summer (by reservation only tel 04.67.95.21.41).
In the meadows below nestles a picturesque church with an ancient
cemetery full of graves like iron cots.
The
University of Toulouse maintains a research unit here to survey the
largest mouflon population in France. If you go out early in the
morning or just before dark in the evening, you'll have a good chance
of seeing these short-fleeced sheep, and wild boar, too, as they come
out to feed. The road provides some good vantage points a little
further north round the Col de l'Ourtigas and the Pas de la
Lauze.
The best short walk to do from Douch is down the GR7 to the hamlet of HÉRIC
in the gorge of the same name. The path starts on the left at the end
of the road in Douch and follows the telephone line. Once over the col
and into the head of the gorge it becomes a beautiful paved mule track
looping down through beech and chestnut woods. In the past people lived
off the chestnuts, selling them, eating them and making flour from
them. It takes about forty minutes to reach the two or three
brown-stone houses of Héric, inhabited for several generations by the
Clavel family, and 90 minutes to climb back up. They run a gîte d'étape and can provide meals , too, on reservation (tel 04.67.97.77.29). A good longer walk from Douch is the popular three-kilometre ascent of Le Caroux
(1040m), south of the village with fine views from the summit along
L'Espinouse , south to Béziers, the sea and even the Pyrenees, on a
clear day.
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