Plateau de Millevaches

The Plateau de Millevaches (in Occitan Replanat de Miuvachas) is an upland area in the Limousin région of France. It covers approximately 3,500 km² and crosses the boundaries of three French départements: the Corrèze, the Creuse and the Haute-Vienne.

The majority of the area is at an altitude of between 600m and 1000m.

Millevacas (12th century); Mille vacce (14th century, Latinized Form).

The Plateau de Millevaches or Millevaches Massif reportedly means "thousand cows" according to the ancient mentions. In the original North Occitan language, it sounds miuvachas (mila being occitan for "one thousand" and vacas "cows"). Brown Limousin cattle are, in fact, ubiquitous on all but the highest parts of the massif. However, the place-name is more a comparison between the landscape and the cows, because the granite stones staying stuck to another resemble cows.

Another serious explanation says Celtic melo "haught" and Latin vacua "empty".

Although commonly referred to as a plateau, the Millevaches Massif is actually more like a shallow dome, deeply dissected by streams and rivers, and slightly tilted, with the south-eastern edge elevated and more exposed. This is the visible remnant of a laccolith, a large lens-shaped mass of granite, believed to be the result of an intrusion of igneous material in the late Hercynian or Variscan orogeny. As the surrounding, softer material has weathered away, the laccolith has become increasingly exposed.

Although not strictly a plateau, depending upon which direction one approaches the area from, the Plateau de Millevaches forms an important kind of step up (or a step down) in the Massif Central. There are a number of definite peaks, the highest being Mont Bessou (976m.), at the southern edge of the massif, near Meymac.

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