Stroll under the watchful gaze of giant Mont Aiguille

3 points of interest

• 

  Back to the past

  Compare with what you can see today! 150 years ago, the forest was sparse and confined to very steep slopes. 
  Crops dominated the meadows, the plots of land showed a more complex field pattern and hedges were rare. The slopes of Mont Aiguille were bare or studded with rough moorland that hardly covered the large gashes caused by erosion.

• 

  Colossus with a foot of clay

  The foot of Mont Aiguille is shaped from marl, a sedimentary rock that is prone to gully erosion and scouring. These numerous ravines are clearly visible on the south-eastern side. At the foot of the rock wall, the keen eye can make out huge blocks that come from the mighty limestone wall of Mont Aiguille. An entire portion of this wall collapsed one day due to the retreating ravines. This is how Mont Aiguille disappeared little by little following one collapse after another.

• 

  An underwater channel?

  Limestone is formed on the seabed through an accumulation of skeletons and shells of sea creatures. The limestone of Mont Aiguille was fashioned in a shallow sea in a tropical climate and close to the continent. This limestone is “stratified” like a millefeuille cake or a pile of plates, each sheet representing a period of sedimentation.
  
  You can see this stratified limestone on the south-east face of Mont Aiguille in front of you. However, on the its upper section you can very clearly make out one level that cuts through the stratification at an angle. This is almost certainly an old underwater channel that created ravines in the sediment that was already there.
  
  Once established, sedimentation was able to restart and plugged this channel.