Travel Guide The Canourgue

La Canourgue owes its development to a small river, the Urugne, which flows through the town. Channeled, it fed the mills, spinning and weaving mills, tanneries and tanneries that made the town famous and prosperous. Today, all the canals that criss-cross the center and pass under the houses are part of its charm, earning the town the name of "Little Venice of Lozère".The seat of a monastery in the 7th century, it protected itself with a castle, of which the Clock Tower is the only vestige. The town's Renaissance bourgeois houses, with their mullioned windows and corbelling, are a testimony to its heyday. The collegiate church of Saint-Martin, despite alterations in the 14th and especially 17th centuries following the collapse of the bell tower-porch, has retained its 12th-century majesty and its layout typical of great pilgrimage churches.1 km from La Canourgue, nestled in a green setting, Saint-Frézal is a small Romanesque chapel which contains a sarcophagus containing the remains of the saint, a pious old man murdered around 820 by his demon-influenced nephew, according to legend! Near the chapel is a spring said to cure skin ailments and never run dry. From this starting point, you can take a green path that opens onto beautiful panoramic views; the banks of the Urugne river form another walking itinerary, which can lead all the way to the Causse de Sauveterre. From here, you can see a natural curiosity, the Malepeyre hoof: a pierced rock with a characteristic shape, thought to be the mark of some giant who passed through here.