It is an episode little known to the many visitors who will admire the superb panorama of the Pic de Nore. At the foot of the highest point of the Montagne Noire, on the Audois side, they can see the village of Pradelles-Cabardès, at an altitude of over 800 meters. In the middle of the 19th century, and for more than fifty years, the inhabitants of the village made their icy winters an economic wealth. From the snow which fell in abundance on their village and above on the foothills of the Pic de Nore they had the idea of making… ice!
Every winter, they collected the heavy and compact snow with wheelbarrows and carts to go and dump it in coolers. These constructions consisted of a large cylindrical pit with a diameter and a depth of about ten meters. The interior walls were clad in stone and the quarried earth was used to insulate the part located above ground level. A two-sided slate roof, supported by stone arches and a wooden frame, completed the building. The stored snow was packed, then covered by a very thick layer of beech leaves.
Cart deliveries throughout the region
In summer, the snow was compacted in cylindrical molds and transformed into ice packs weighing 50 or sometimes a hundred kilos.
the same
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Wrapped in burlap, they were ready to be delivered. Loaded on carts, these ice packs were transported to Narbonne, Carcassonne, Mazamet, Revel or Castres. A little later, the development of railways made it possible to deliver them to Bordeaux, Toulouse or Perpignan. The main customers were coffee makers, butchers, fishmongers or even wealthy families.
The manufacture of artificial ice was right, after the war of 1914-1918, of this “epic”. There are still some remains of these coolers today. These last witnesses of an extraordinary human adventure would undoubtedly have deserved to be better known and preserved …
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