Here is the official well, situated behind the Templar church of Saint Sébastien. A very knowledgeable local who has an encyclopedic knowledge of the oral history of Campagne-sur-Aude has been digging out and restoring this well- check out page 12 of the Bulletin Municipale.
Yes it’s a little out of date, this is our village..
http://www.campagne-sur-aude.fr/
http://www.templiers.org/campagne-sur-aude.php
Interestingly, the partial and chaotic house deeds we hold ( cobbled together very recently we think) make mention of another well on our property, vague rumours of which had reached our ears.
The filled in remains were found under this slab-right-the cave before-
No we did not find the necessary enormous funds to excavate, repair, restore it and put a decorative glass viewing panel over. Maybe one day, but right now heating , plumbing and everything else comes first.
In the interests of research, I went trawling about looking for photos of the village on the net.
I found this one-left-
https://languedoctravel.wordpress.com/2014/05/11/templar-church-in-campagne-sur-aude/
Dude, that’s our (French) car!!!
Blog-sur-Aude 
There was a well in the 1600s and probably earlier in the courtyard of our place in Carcassonne. Now there is a “cave” there, but it’s completely unusable. I’d like to fill it in and forget about it.
A number of houses near the river in our village have springs in their basements. Quite amazing.
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Reblogged this on husifrankrike and commented:
Isn’t it amazing what you can find when restoring an old french house…
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Exciting though, to have something so elemental on your property. Covered or not
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Elemental.
I like that .
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Exciting, though, to have something so elemental within your cave
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I fix up everything but even I covered up one of the wells on my property. It was properly stone lined, but still. Honestly, a well in the basement kind of creeps me out. Maybe I’ve seen too many murder mysteries of the “if you see a gun in the first act…” variety but I would leave that cement cover right where it is.
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Your well sounds just like ours, I guess the cave is the nearest thing we have to a basement.
You will be relieved to know that the cement slab was taken up in the interests of levelling out the very wonky floor . We will soon do a light skim, then over that goes insulation, electric underfloor heating and travertine tiles.
Believe me, NO-ONE is taking up that floor, not after all the grief , angst, hard work & hassle we have been through.
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It is such a pretty village and really fascinating. It’s great that there is a historian taking the time to excavate, examine and record the history for posterity. The well should probably remain covered. After all, who knows what might lie down there 😉
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Well, we have a pretty good idea; some not so nice stuff occurred down here centuries ago .
So I’m with you on leaving it be…
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My over-active imagination precludes me from poking anything that doesn’t need to be poked, if you get my drift. Let sleeping dogs lie and enjoy the house YOU are making. And so says all of me!
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If you have an over-active imagination also, it’s a damn good job you weren’t with me yesterday afternoon..!!
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I hope you will tell us more ….
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Maybe the local authorities could help fund your well restoration project. One can always dream:)
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Nadia, it’s taken them centuries to get around to taking care of other priceless relics; I think our well would be at the very bottom of any list!
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