La Serpent

Towns and Villages - by Provence Beyond

Villages > Serpent      

Nearby:  | Arques 17 km | Carcassonne 47 km | Cassaignes 14 km | Couiza 7 km | Coustaussa 9 km | Espéraza 10 km | Fa 12 km | Limoux 23 km | Montazels 6 km | Narbonne 77 km | Perpignan 97 km | Quillan 19 km | Rennes-le-Chateau 10 km | Serres 13 km |

Below: | Sundials | Hiking | Lodging Hotels |

The village of La Serpent is far from being a tourist attraction, having only a collection of houses for it's 80-some residents. The Chateau is impressive when viewed while arriving at the village, but it's privately owned and not open to visitors.

The surrounding farming land includes a few old stone towers, possibly ancient windmill towers, or perhaps old watch towers. With the blue sky, green fields and yellow sunflowers, it's all quite pretty.

We were not able to discover the origin of the village name.

Sundials

There is an ancient, faded sundial on one of the chateau towers — easily visible if you have a pair of binoculars or a good telephoto lens. On one of the walls in the village is another sundial that is actually approachable. Both are of a similar style, but the one on the village house is more colorful, yet still very, very faded [Photo 6].

Hiking

Maps:

IGN (1/25,000) #2347 OT "Quillan, Alet-les-Bains"

One hiking trail passes through La Serpent, and a few large (one-day) loop hikes connect to it.

To the southeast the trail branches towards Fa, Esperaza or Antugnac. You can loop around any of the branches and return to La Serpent at the end.

To the north, the trail branches quickly southwest and loops south to Fa, where you can find a trail returning to La Serpent from the southeast.

Going north from La Serpent, without the branch, the trail goes through the little villages of Bouriège and Roquetaillade.

There are also country roads north and east of La Serpent good for country walking.

Lodging - Hotels