The Abbesse property is set outside St Paul les Dax in
a wooded area, strewn with lakes and rivulets. It is well
known for its nice trails that you can follow, either on foot
or by bike.
HISTORY
The Herrere valley - made of two rivulets – was for a long...
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The Abbesse property is set outside St Paul les Dax in
a wooded area, strewn with lakes and rivulets. It is well
known for its nice trails that you can follow, either on foot
or by bike.
HISTORY
The Herrere valley - made of two rivulets – was for a long
time a place where they extracted iron ore. For centuries, “la garluche”, a local stone mixed with charcoal,
was used in metallurgical industry. Our area is one of
the oldest centers in the south-west of France for iron ore
exploitation.
Used for a while in the 17th century by Basque blacksmiths, this site reached its peak production in the 19th
century. Smelting furnaces, created by the main landowner, Bertrand Geoffroy, supplied a sort of cast iron
used to make steel sheets for the shipbuilding industry.
It employed 400 people at the time. Blacksmiths were
skilled workers, therefore they were better paid than most
of the local labour force. The landowner usually housed
them in “Corons” equipped with running water brought
by a water to
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