Vultures and beavers
You’re idly walking through the woods – and there it happens ! While picking up some cepes and other mushrooms, you find the tracks of some wild beast ! What are they ? A doe, a deer, a boar ?
You may also spot hares, weasels, squirrels…and looking up, owls, falcons, buzzards ! Many species long forgotten or about to be, have been recently reintroduced in the area. Such as beavers, who are back on the banks of Tarn and La Dourbie after many years.

So are Bouldras vultures, not to be seen around for over half a century. Thanks to the “Fonds d’intervention pour les rapaces” (Birds of prey fund) ! To catch some birds sights, walk to the “Belvedere des terrasses de la ligue pour la protection des oiseaux”. The belvedere is a few 4 kilometers from Peyreleau, on the Meyrueis road.

About trouts
Fly-fishing buffs will find heaven here. Stand on the hotel banks and watch them big Fario trouts sleep under the rocks, cautious as the water keeps still. Amateurs had better go at it real early – or real late, dawn or dusk, since these wild trouts really have tricks of their own.
Tarn being classified as 1st category, fishing is allowed from the 19th of March to the 19th of September. Bait worms are usually forbidden. On rivers Tarn, La Jonte and La Bourbie, the legal size of a fishing trout shall be of 23 cm.


Orchids and Cardabelle Flowers
Tarn parting them, Causse Méjean and Causse Noir offer a breath-taking wilderness. Which remains as preserved as it should be up to now. See these pubescent oak trees, see junipers as if they were jumping out of a maze of bushes, smell their wild perfumes…
May and June you will love : the desert-like causses are suddenly covered with scorpion jennets (CHECK), and marvel at the intricate frame and colours of the landscape !
Splendid flowers grow in the causses, very special ones. Climatic variations and geological specificities allow the soil to an incredible diversity. As for climate, we only need to mention that the causses are under three very different influences : Mediterranean, Oceanic and Continental. Quite a cocktail ! One of the main geological points is the famous “Karst”, which sucks underground all of the rainwaters.
Orchids do grow in the causses : about 60 species are registered in the area, when a mere hundredth grow in France. You’ll find a very special kind of one, born on that calcarious plateau, christened after Aveyron itself : our own Ophrys Aveyronensis.

The causses also shelter the “Carline à feuilles d’acanthe”. A rather uncommon kind of thistlet, also known as “Cardabelle”, “Cardon” or “Cardouille”. This last knickname comes with an ancient tradition : first, you eat the soft heart of the thistle. Then use its thorny heart to card wool. And then, nail the Cardabelle to a door under a porch : you’ll have the best barometer of all. The centre of the Cardabelle is supposed to close down when rain comes, and open up with the sun !

Cèpes, Oreillettes and Babissous (local mushrooms)
Good years, bad years, pay no mind : you’ll always be glad enough to step on some mushrooms : they’re everywhere on the causses ! Sure, the locals won’t tell you of their secret spots, but don’t worry. At the Grand Hotel, we’ve gotten some of our own – and they’ll be just as stupendous !
Two different kinds of cepes are to be found on the causses. oak cepes mainly grow in southern Aveyron, while conifer cepes may be found in any...conifer trees areas. Lesser-known mushrooms may prove as delicious, starting with "oreillettes" and "babissous", favourites at Fall. Black and brown, they're well hidden, so that you'll have to wait for sunrays to shine on them to have a chance to spot them.

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