The Puechs

4 points of interest

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  History

  The Pont des Camisards

  Legend has it that this humpback bridge was built from 1702 to 1704 by Jean Cavalier, a leader of the Protestant Camisard uprising against the Catholic King. And a legend is all it is. It was constructed a decade later, from 1714 to 1718, when Louis XIV's Intendant, a Monsieur de Basville, decided to develop the road network in the Cevennes. The diocese of Alès was responsible for funding a large share of the construction, and the inhabitants of Mialet were forced to participate through work our paying taxes. In 1976, it became a listed monument. (Nelly Bernard)

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  History

  Mas Soubeyran

  The idea for a “Museum of the Wilderness” goes back to 1880, when the Société de l'histoire du protestantisme français launched a subscription to buy the birthplace of the Camisard leader Roland (real name: Pierre Laporte). […] In 1910, the Musée du Désert was created as a memorial site to trace the history of Protestantism from 1685 to 1789 and its fight against the French regime's intolerance. […] It is intended to bear witness to the past and promote awareness of the spiritual and cultural heritage that shaped the Cevenol mentality. Every first Sunday in September, almost 20,000 people gather in the shade of the oaks at Mas Soubeyran to hold a Protestant service – the so-called Gathering in the Wilderness. (Nelly Bernard)

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  Agriculture

  Mill

  Very old mills for producing oil, wool and flour border the Valat de Baumelle gully. Note the mill pond (Occitan: gorga) at the edge of the path and backing onto the mill. The inhabitants of Luziers laid out their vegetable plots on the many terraces you can still see on either side of the path. The uppermost terraces – the “dry gardens”  – were reserved for crops needing little water: broad beans, lentils, peas, etc. Other vegetables were planted on terraces that lay closer to the waterway. They were irrigated using a system of terracotta pipes connected to small basins. (Nelly Bernard)

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  Flora

  Hellebore

  Alongside the paths grows a plant whose name, at least, is known to all those who remember La Fontaine's fable of the Hare and the Tortoise: “Pray take, your senses to restore / A grain or two of hellebore”. Hellebore, also known as dungwort, is toxic – but it does not cure madness as popular belief had it. This member of the buttercup family is evergreen and can be identified in winter by its pale green leaves, which are spear-shaped and palmately lobed. […] Its pale green flower stalk has bracts and dies after flowering; it appears in February to March. It is embellished with five greenish petals with a red edge and ten petals of a rather unpleasant nectary shape. Shepherds hung it in sheepfolds and used it to treat abscesses and sheep scab. (Nelly Bernard)