Cevennes is located in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of 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 Cevennes has never been a single united geographic or administrative area.

The Cevennes on the french map

It is currently 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 .

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 Cevennes" or the "Cevennes from Cevennes" which has been singularised in literature, especially by Jean-Pierre Chabrol, as "La Cévenne". The Cevennes is simultaneously a region, a culture, a memory, identities and a claim of belonging. This Cevennes 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

History

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 .

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 Cevennes" or the "Cevennes from Cevennes" which has been singularised in literature, especially by Jean-Pierre Chabrol, as "La Cévenne". The Cevennes is simultaneously a region, a culture, a memory, identities and a claim of belonging. This Cevennes 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 567m) to Mont Lozère (1 702m), 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.

Cevennes National Park

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 Cevennes Ecotourism association. In conjunction with its local partners, it provides the public with equipment and events that ensure an enriching exploration of the Cevennes and its residents

Cevennes Ecotourism

The Cevennes 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 Cevennes in a way that combines sensitivity with warmth.

Cevennes 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, 1h30 flight from London and 2h30 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 Cevennes.
• Many stations served by trains and buses of the TER network Languedoc-Roussillon : www.ter-sncf.com (UK)

By air

• Nimes Ales Camargue Cevennes
• Beziers Cap d'Agde
• Perpignan-Rivesaltes
• Carcassonne Salvaza
• Aveyron Rodez Marcillac
• Fly to Montpellier

Do

• Gorges du Tarn: canyon with the river Tarn
• Gorges de la Jonte: a smaller canyon
• Cirque de Navacelles
• Mont Aigoual (Rainmountain, 1567 m.; with meteorological museum and observatorium)
• l'Aven Armand, dripstonecave
• La Grotte des Demoiselles, dripstonecave
• Grotte de Dargilan, dripstonecave
• Chaos de Montpellier-le-Vieux, rocksformation
• Chaos de Nîmes-le-Vieux, rocksformation
• Corniche des Cévennes, autoroute Cevennen
• Circuit des Vallées Cévenoles

Drink

Cevennes wine is excellent.