The Cannons Road 
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The Cannons Road 
For travellers passing through, welcome to iron country, to our small community with its rich metallurgic history. In the Forges of Ans and at Plazac, from 1691 to 1830, thousands of cannons were manufactured for the French royal marines. You may be surprised to discover that in this little corner of the Périgord, men who were our ancestors, farmers who worked the land, also mastered the art of working and forging iron!
This is the story that brought the ten villages spanning the valleys of the Auvézère and the Vézère together to honour this historic road. The cooperation became even greater in 2003, when a generous donator, Mr Dominique Ballif-Festugière, a direct descendant of the ironmongers of old, made the gift of three marine cannons copied from the 18th century.
With the help and the abundance of the Collective Development Project involving four districts (Montignac, Saint-Cyprien, Terrasson and Thenon) with the General Council of the Dordogne, with the Regional Council of the Aquitaineand the support of all the Municipal Councils, the three cannons were put on display during two festive days, the 12th and 13th of July 2003. The donator’s wishes were excecuted by the installation of these monuments at La Boissière d’Ans, where the cannons were hiostorically manufactured, at Brouchaud, where they were tested, and at Peyzac-le-Moustier, where they were embarked towards the Rochefort arsenal.
The 2nd of November 1603, Henry the 4th, badly in debt, sold the castle of Ans, the village and the parish of La Boissière to Jeanne de Marquessac for the amount of 17 500 pounds.
In 1618, Jeanne de Marquessac married René de Hautefort which brought Ans into the Hautefort family.
François de Hautefort transformed the mill at the Boissière d’Ans into a forge. The manufacture of cannons began. These were for the most part cannons weighing 4.5 tons and measuring 3.14 meters. The cannonballs they shot weighed 18 kilograms.
The pace of life in this semi-agricultural, semi-industrial, rural region was punctuated by work at the blast furnaces for different types of workers. Apart from the forge workers, the manufacturing chain consisted of:
The road existed before the forges were built, but now with the importance of the cannons, the king’s politics would influence it. Its course was traced according to a straight line when possible, but also followed crests of hills and sometimes, thanks to royal power, crossed private property.
This road, which begins et the Forge of Ans, passes through Brouchaud, Ajat, the Jarripigier – at the time an important hamlet of the Thenon parish and an intersection of the Périgueux-Montignac road – then through Bars, along the crests towards the Bos of Plazac and the Côte of Jor overlooking the Vézère valley before finishing at the landing-stage of the Moustier.
Through the work of the Circle of Research of the Foundries of Ans, the Cannons Road has been brought to light. Now more than ever, the rigorous historic research of this group is associated with an approach accessible to tourists. The course of the road has been rediscovered thanks to the Belleyme map (Belleyme was the king’s cartographer during the 18th century). This map, after scale-related corrections, was traced onto an official IGN 1/25 000 map. This allowed for certain sections of the path to reappear.
Today a part of the road is tarred, and another part has been reclaimed as private property. The Cannons Road that you may follow today is partially made up of a substitution which brings the hiker to the hamlet of the Pinolie, in the parish of Limeyrat, through Bars and through a few other detours.
The Forge of Ans, after having changed owners many times for financial and political reasons, stopped its activity around 1870, after the arrival of iron metallurgy from the Lorraine, which had the advantage of mineral coal. It is also important to note that the free trade agreements between the European powers rendered iron metallurgy in the Périgord region non-viable.
The research that has been pursued in the last few years allows us to reconstruct with a certain reliability the path that our ancestors took towards the gates of the Moustier. Remember that the Forge of Ans was the point of origin of the marine cannons which were destined to head down that road, dangerous as it could be at that period of time.
Whether you are motivated by history, exercise, or just curiosity, several hiking itineraries are possible. The following text is meant to give you some idea of the terrain.
The point of origin for a hike can be given at the cannon -- copied from the 18th century original -- mounted in front of the Fête hall at the Boissière d’Ans. Following the arrows, take the hiking path number 2, which becomes number 3 as soon as you arrive at the village of Brouchaud. Follow the direction of the Gilardie, then Ajat, after having rejoined the CD 68 on your left. Once you are in Ajat, you must unfortunately abandon the historic road, which, although known, becomes lost in the woods.
To get back on the Cannons Road, you must go to the National Road 89 (towards Périgueux) and then follow the CD 31 towards Rouffignac. Several kilometres along, you arrive at the Jarripigier. This is the ancient Cannons Road.
Once you leave the Jarripigier on your left, and after about 1 1/2 kilometers, you will run into a small road that will take you to Plazac-Fanlac, about 9 kilometres farther along. On this part of the trip, you will pass alongside a chestnut bark cabin which has been rebuilt by the mayor’s office of Bars. In the summer it is the perfect place to stop and relax.
From here, you can continue towards three places: the oven of Marty, the four Cendriers (straight on), and the Bos of Plazac. If you choose to continue to this last destination, you are in fact rejoining the D45 towards Thonac. You can catch a glimpse of the magnificent Castle of Chabans from a lookout point along this road. Follow the path along 400 metres, then turn to the right towards the Côte de Jor. The road becomes steep, but allows you a sense of being above the valley. The drivers of carts in olden times must have had good brakes, because the gradient is 150 metres! Thereafter, there are only a few hundred metres to go to get to where the old gates of the Moustier stood, above which stands la Roque Saint-Christophe.
After having cut across the D 706 and then heading off on the dirt road, you will find yourself close to those defunct gates, marked “La Maison du Passeur.” For more details on this hiking path please refer to an IGN map.