Vernet-les-Bains, Prades, Pyrénées-Orientales, Occitanie, Francei

Regional Level Types
Vernet-les-Bains	Commune
Prades	Arrondissement
Pyrénées-Orientales	Department
Occitanie	Region
France	Country

Vernet-les-Bains is a small city on the north face of the Canigou mountain which territory spreads south-east almost to the Canigou Peak. The village and surroundings used to be called the "Pyrenees Paradise".
Famous from its health resort (thermal spas) since 19th century, the Vernet site also saw at the same period the development of mining exploitations as part of the Canigou iron belt.
Several outer and inner mining sites were found east and west of the village. Some works and researches were even carried at the village border threatening the graveyard stability which had to be moved...
All the mines are now closed for decades.
Vernet-les-Bains nowadays also hosts a geological museum with a large mineralogical collection (Mr André Trochon's) which is now under Paris Natural History Museum survey since 2013.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Vernet-les-Bains welcomed for many years a distinguished guest : Rudyard Kipling. Here is what he wrote about Vernet and the Canigou (27 February 1911) :
"I came here in search of nothing more than a little sunshine. But I found Canigou, whom I discovered to be a magician among mountains, and I submitted myself to his power… I watch him with wonder and delight. Nothing that he could do or give birth to would now surprise me, whether i met Don Quixote himself riding in from the Spanish side, or all the chivalry of ancient France watering their horses at his streams, or saw (which each twilight seems quite possible) gnomes and kobbolds swarming out of the mines and tunnels of his flanks."
(French translation) "J’avoue que, l’an passé, je ne vins rien chercher ici de plus qu’un petit rayon de soleil. Mais je trouvai le Canigou, je découvris en lui la montagne enchanteresse entre toutes, et je me soumis à son pouvoir... Mais, cette année, le Canigou a pris pour moi sa véritable place dans mon esprit et dans mon cœur, et je le contemple avec admiration et ravissement. Rien de ce qu’il pourrait faire ou créer ne saurait maintenant me surprendre, - soit que je rencontrasse Don Quichotte lui-même venant à cheval du côté de l’Espagne, ou tous les chevaliers de l’ancienne France abreuvant leurs coursiers à ses torrents, soit que je visse (ce qui, à chaque crépuscule, semble parfaitement possible), des gnômes et des kobbolds s’échappant en essaims des mines et des tunnels qui s’ouvrent sur ses flancs".

Fossils

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Other Databases

Wikipedia:	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernet-les-Bains
Wikidata ID:	Q190011
GeoNames ID:	6441057

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References