The clifftops

This river has been used as the drinking-water supply for the town’s many fountains, to irrigate its gardens, power up to eight water mills and provide water for a fish farm. In the old days, it was also used for public wash-houses, tanneries and as a drain for waste water.

The original church, the Chaise-Dieu Priory church, stood on the site of the current church, surrounded by a cemetery. Between the 13th and 15th century, Florac was known for the power struggle between its priory and its lord, who lived on the other side of the Bibrou (Vibron) river. The church was destroyed in 1561 and a temple (Protestant church) built on its vestiges. Florac was devastated many times by religious wars: the temple, the clock and the church tower were all destroyed at the beginning of the 17th century (1629). The current Catholic church, built in the neoclassical style, dates from 1833, just like the temple on the Esplanade.

A flora typical for these dry chalky slopes is colonising the pastures: box, juniper, shadbush (Juneberry), briar and blackthorn. These plants content themselves with thin soils but need light. They are well-adapted to drought and heat. The harsh conditions under which these shrubs live is reflected in the toughness of their wood, which is often used for wood-turning or cane-making.

On the valley floors there are still some fairly large expanses of farmed meadows, but some of the space has been urbanised. Other arable surfaces, “suspended” mid-slope, depend for their upkeep on the farmers who live in the isolated villages. On the slopes, the forested areas in their mix of oak, chestnut and conifers form a pattern marked by different era. Short-grass prairies are persisting on high ground, and heath covers siliceous soils.

The Pierre Plate Dolmen was built about 2600 BC. Dolmens are collective tombs that must also have played an important role in the identity and cohesion of the social group that built them (called the Treilles Group by archaeologists, after the name of a cave that it once occupied). These tomb builders were caving pioneers: they ventured into the depths of swallow holes to get water and clay. They were also innovators, producing very beautiful stone arrowheads shaped like fir trees and soon afterwards learning to fashion copper (arrowheads, daggers, axes).

To the west and northwest, you see the Causse Méjean and Causse Sauveterre; further west, the Causse Noir and the Causse du Larzac. On these large, creviced limestone plateaux, water rapidly disappears into the ground and from there into rivers, which have carved out impressive gorges. Straight ahead in the far distance is Mont Lozère, which gave its name to the département. Where the Causses are arid, Mont Lozère is covered by a network of streams (cf. Runes and Lozérette waterfalls) that irrigate its meadows. In between the two lie the abrupt silhouettes of the Tarn, Mimente and Tarnon valleys.

Over 50,000 hectares of mountainside with countless little streams issuing from the tiniest springs drain into the Tarn and its tributaries downstream of Florac. These rivers all belong to the Atlantic side of the watershed: their water flows into the Atlantic. Their rate of flow is more even than that of the Cévenol rivers belonging to the Mediterranean basin. On the Atlantic side, the average slope is moderate and the climate fairly regular, whereas the Mediterranean side has more abrupt gradients and storms with heavy rainfall in autumn and spring. Between them lies an intermediate zone which blends both characteristics, as it does here.

and has as many inhabitants today as it did at the end of the 19th century (about 2,000). Some of the alluvial terraces of the river Tarnon are the chosen areas for urbanisation now. The château, which dates from the 13th century, is home to the headquarters of the Cévennes National Park.