Les Cammazes, France: travel guide to the Montagne Noire village and Vauban's canal tunnel

Les Cammazes is a small village in the Tarn department of Occitania, in southern France, set at around 600 metres in the forests of the Montagne Noire where the boundaries of three departments meet. Home to only about 400 people, it lies at the very sources of the Canal du Midi and is famous for a remarkable feat of 17th-century engineering hidden beneath its hills.

For travellers searching for Les Cammazes, the Vauban vault, the Rigole de la Montagne or the sources of the Canal du Midi, the village offers woodland walks, mountain lakes and a UNESCO World Heritage monument.

Vauban's vault and the Canal du Midi

The village's great landmark is the Voûte Vauban, a vaulted tunnel about 122 metres long built between 1686 and 1688 to the design of the military engineer Vauban. It carries the Rigole de la Montagne, the channel that gathers water from the Montagne Noire, under the ridge so that it can flow towards the great basin of Saint-Ferréol and feed the Canal du Midi. As part of the canal, the tunnel is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a footpath and cycle route follow the Rigole through beautiful forest scenery.

Lakes, forest and history

Les Cammazes sits on a "route of the lakes" linking the reservoirs of the Montagne Noire, including the large Cammazes dam, inaugurated in 1956, which supplies drinking water and irrigation. The surrounding forests offer walking, cycling and riding, while the ruins of the medieval castle of Roquefort, once a refuge during the Cathar period, recall the village's older past.

Practical information

Les Cammazes lies close to the town of Revel and the lake of Saint-Ferréol, about 25 kilometres from Castres and around 30 kilometres from Carcassonne, at the meeting point of the Tarn, Aude and Haute-Garonne, making it a peaceful green base in the Montagne Noire.