The Grandval Dam via La Mourache

Access. From Fridefont, take the D40 towards the Grandval dam, then turn right onto the Route de la Bastide and park on the verge near the Fridefont War Memorial – Route de la Bastide.

(S/E) Head for the Vialard crossroads via the ^PR® la Mourache trail, walking against the direction of traffic, which joins the^GRP® Tour de Saint-Flour trail for a short while. Turn right onto the tarmac Allée des Frênes.

(1) Pass the entrance to a farm on the right and continue straight ahead, over the D40, along the edge of the field, closing any animal gates as you go. Join the departmental road at the end of a bend.

(2) Follow the road to the left for a few metres. Note the cross marking the site of the former village of Sarrus before turning right towards a bend in the Truyère. You’ll reach the site of the village, which was submerged when the dam was built.

(3) Leave the^PR® for a return trip to an isthmus on Lake Lanau.

(4) Retrace your steps back to the previous junction.

(3) Turn left and pass under a high-voltage power line before reaching Sandouillère.

(5) Turn left before a holiday home and walk alongside the river beneath a power line. Reach a junction

Temporary departure from the^PR®

(6) Turn left towards the bend in the Mourache and then join the access road to the hamlet.

(7) Walk past the isolated house to reach the Mourache jetty, where a picnic table under the trees is the perfect spot to take a breather.

(8) After your break, retrace your steps back to the isolated house.

(8) Take the road on the left. After 1,200 metres along the narrow track, you’ll reach the junction with the D40 upstream of the Grandval dam. Turn left here and walk to the dam and back to admire the lake created by the reservoir, following the^GR® de Pays de Saint-Flour (yellow-red markings).

(9) Return via the D40 and, on the left as you come out of the bend, look out for a path leading into the forest.
Follow the^GRP® markings heading east, then turn right and head uphill through the woodland. After two hairpin bends, the path joins the road at the Bastide farm.

(10) Continue along the tarmac road to the War Memorial (S/E)

There are several places to stay in Fridefont but no shops.

(7) Picnic table.

The Grandval Dam
Situated in the Truyère Gorges, the Grandval Dam was built between 1955 and 1960. The reservoir began to fill in 1959, resulting in the creation of a reservoir covering an area of 1,100 ha, which submerged the villages of Mallet and Magnac.
The dam consists of six arches, each 50 m wide, and two side walls. Its maximum height above the Truyère is approximately 75 m and its length is 350 m. The surface area of the Grandval Dam reservoir is around 1,100 ha.

Sarrus
Before becoming a village, Sarrus was the name of a Visigothic chieftain who had rallied to the Roman Empire. Appointed a count of the empire, he was granted the Auvergne region. He then settled in the Truyère valley, a crossing point between the north and the south, at the site that would later take the name of Sarrus.
The village disappeared, submerged by the waters when the dam was built, just like Mallet and Magnac… All that remains is an iron cross erected at the entrance to the village in 1925 to mark the centenary of the commune’s transfer to the parish of Fridefont.