Grape harvests in the Gard, 2,000 ravers in the Aude and dinosaur footprints in Lozère… the essential news in the region

L’actualité en région ce 3 août 2024. ML

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The Codognan cellar launches the 2024 harvest

#GARD. The first grapes from the 2024 harvest arrived this Friday at the Codognan cellar, pinot intended for making sparkling wines and therefore requiring a moderate alcohol level. Last year, the largest organic cooperative cellar in France, which collects grapes from 70 cooperators, started the harvest on August 12, the 2022 and 2020 vintages were also early. You will have to wait a bit to assess the quality and quantities of the grapes. The Voie d’Héraclès cellar offers 65 different types of wines from 33 grape varieties. 99% of the production is sold in bulk to the trade, the rest in its cellar, for direct sale.

A construction site to unearth dinosaur footprints

#LOZERE. About fifteen scientists and paleontology students began a six-day excavation on Thursday after a walker discovered two dinosaur footprints on a slab in the middle of a field in May 2023. The resident of Saint-Laurent-de-Trèves contacted a paleontologist who dated the traces, which are estimated to be 200 million years old, the Jurassic period. From the first day of excavations, about fifteen prints were unearthed. “All the prints we found are tridactyl (three fingers), explains Jean-David Moreau, the paleontologist. On some, we can even see the pads and claws." The tracks reveal the passage of theropods. "Sometimes, people are jaded because there have already been several discoveries in the area. But we must be aware that on a global scale, this is extraordinary”, underlines Jean-David Moreau.

Nearly 2,000 ravers set up in a sensitive area

#AUDE. At least 2,000 party-goers gathered on the night of Friday to Saturday in Talairan, on the Saint-Rome estate, classified as a "sensitive natural area", according to the Aude prefecture. However, the Corbières area, which is very wooded, is at very high risk of forest fires. And it is also very difficult to access. The town's firefighters are ready to intervene in the event of a fire, with two forest fire trucks available. The prefecture denounced "an irresponsible attitude of the organizers". For the mayor of the village, Cédric Malric, in conjunction with the Lagrasse gendarmerie brigade, mobilized on the scene, the time is also one of concern. The Red Cross has also gone to the scene.

The figure of the day: 1.4

#AVEYRON.In percentage, the drop in overnight stays recorded in the department in July. Tourism officials point in particular to the political context or even the capricious weather to explain this decline also observed in the number of French visitors (- 4.8%) partially offset by the increase in the number of foreign tourists (+ 12.5%). After an improvement at the end of July, professionals are hoping for a good month of August.

The director of “Chien de la casse” honorary citizen

#HÉRAULT. Jean-Baptiste Durand, César for best first film last February, now living in Montpellier, received the medal of the City of Montpeyroux on Friday. It is a testament to the cinematographic prowess of the director of Chien de la casse (twice awarded a César) but also to the man's attachment to the Hérault Valley. Like a return to the sources for the director whose work, which honors rural youth, is strongly marked by his adolescence spent in the village. A sensitivity that we will find in his second film currently in preparation.

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