Photo : Rsaignes / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Lac de Servières
Lying in the commune of Orcival, at an altitude of 1,202 metres in the Monts Dore massif, the Lac de Servières fills a maar, a crater formed by an explosive eruption when magma met groundwater. Contemporary with the volcanoes of the Chaîne des Puys, it is thought to be less than 10,000 years old. Almost circular, it covers about fifteen hectares and is 26 metres deep.
High walls rise above it to the south, towards the Puy de Combe Perret, while to the east its waters lap the rim of the crater. The lake is largely surrounded by larch and fir forests, where bilberries and wild raspberries grow in summer. On the nearby summer pastures, lines of hollows are the remains of "tras", old shepherds' huts. The Sioule rises a little lower down, about one kilometre to the north-east.
