Cévennes
Cévennes is a region in the Languedoc-Roussillon in France. The region is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site under the name "The Causses and the Cévennes, Mediterranean Agro-pastoral Cultural Landscape".
Understand
The Cévennes has never been a single united geographic or administrative area.
It is divided into 5 départements and 3 regions. Their boundaries have changed greatly over the years. This mountainous chain starting at the Narouze sill and reaching the level of the Canal du Centre has often been described as the division between the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea .
History
The Cévennes' boundaries have changed greatly over the years. This mountainous chain starting at the Narouze sill and reaching the level of the Canal du Centre has often been described as the division between the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
However, history and culture have made a little country emerge from this vast area that is keenly aware of its identity and which the Scottish writer Stevenson named, in 1878, as "'pure bred Cévennes" or the "Cévennes from Cévennes" which has been singularised in literature, especially by Jean-Pierre Chabrol, as "La Cévenne".
The Cévennes is simultaneously a region, a culture, a memory, identities and a claim of belonging. This Cévennes only exists through the people who have made it and who perpetuate it. It is identifiable through the vectors of its character such as Protestantism, anthropisation of the landscape, chestnut trees, silk
Landscape
Mount Cévenole is a series of crests stretching from Aigoual (1,567 m) to Mont Lozère (1,702 m), its slopes covered in a vast carpet of oak and chestnut trees and shrubs.
The Cévenol hamlets and villages nestled therein are one of the region's hidden treasures. The southern flank is dotted with Mediterranean streams, natural vestiges of nature from another time, such as the Cirque de Navacelles.
To the west, the desertscape of Causse Méjan plays host to living species that thrive in a continental climate, such as bisons or Przewalski horses. The gorges of the Tarn snake beneath its feet.
Protection is the main purpose of the National Park and it involves all of its riches: flora, wild and domestic fauna, traditional architecture based on shale, limestone and granite, the culture, traditional activities.
To confirm this approach, the Park has signed the 'European sustainable tourism charter' and, as part of this, suggests that its hosts, guides and other tourist service providers are committed to the quality of their services.
They are members of the Cévennes Ecotourism association. In conjunction with its local partners, it provides the public with equipment and events that ensure an enriching exploration of the Cévennes and its residents
Cévennes Ecotourism
The Cévennes Ecotourism association is a network of business people who have decided to apply the principles of the European sustainable tourism charter in partnership with the National Park.
Owners of guest houses, gîtes, hotels, farm inns, campsites or natural and cultural sites, mountain guides or outdoor activity monitors, environmental educationists; all these people have united to help you explore Cévennes in a way that combines sensitivity with warmth.
Cévennes Ecotourism helps its members with very specific actions such that everyone can promote the values of eco-tourism: tools for exploring the natural and cultural heritage, use of eco-materials, energy saving, promotion of local products, saving jobs.
Get in
3-hour TGV from Paris, 1 hr 30 min flight from London and 2 hr 30 min drive from Barcelona.
By car
- A61 Toulouse - Narbonne
- A75 Montpellier - Clermont-Ferrand - Paris
- A9 (la Languedocienne) Barcelone (Espagne)Montpellier
By train
- TGV daily between Paris, Lille and Lyon and major cities in the Cévennes.
- Many stations served by trains and buses of the local rail network (TER Occitanie).
By plane
- Nimes Ales Camargue Cévennes
- Beziers Cap d'Agde
- Perpignan-Rivesaltes
- Carcassonne Salvaza
- Aveyron Rodez Marcillac[dead link]
- Fly to Montpellier
See
- Gorges du Tarn: canyon with the river Tarn
- Gorges de la Jonte: a smaller canyon
- Cirque de Navacelles (near Blandas) — an amazing cirque where the road almost unbelievably descends to a tiny village
- Mont Aigoual (mountain 1567 m; with meteorological museum and observatory)
- l'Aven Armand, dripstone cave
- La Grotte des Demoiselles, dripstone cave
- Grotte de Dargilan, dripstone cave
- Chaos de Montpellier-le-Vieux, rock formation
- Chaos de Nîmes-le-Vieux, rock formation
- Corniche des Cévennes
- Circuit des Vallées Cévenoles
Do
Eat
Drink
Cévennes wine is excellent.