Mill Trail

This lane represents the limit between the sweet chestnut zone and the broom and heather zone. This east-facing slope was once one of the largest pasture areas in the Cévennes, grazed by local and transhumant flocks of sheep. Higher up, callune, a type of heather which flowers earlier at altitude, covers the Bougès massif in mauve in August and provides its precious nectar to bees. This moor of heather and broom (common and Pyrenean or purging broom) is dotted with hawthorns, rose hips and blackthorns, and is slowly being taken over by the forest. 

This hamlet used to live the traditional Cévenol way. The chestnuts fed its human inhabitants and fattened the pigs. Sheep, goats and cows were raised. The crop terraces below the houses supplied the grains and garden vegetables. After a long period of abandonment, Le Tronc has come alive again. Today the ruins have become houses again, a sheep farmer maintains the open spaces, the chestnut orchard has been restored, and pélardon cheeses are waiting to be savoured. 

(from: salaison, meaning “salting (meat)”)
This hamlet amidst meadows is very exposed to the winds but benefits from several springs, which are a crucial asset for farms. The diversity of the farm buildings (granges, sheepfolds, stables, clèdes or chestnut-drying buildings, etc.) bears witness to the size of these farms in the old days.

The mill, whose construction dates to 1790, was built and used by several landowners at Le Salson. It was the largest mill in the valley and had been cleverly designed. Its well-thought-out water course could activate several millstones at once. The mill was thus used to make groats while another millstone ground rye or wheat or buckwheat for flour and yet another crushed walnut kernels for oil. 
In another building, pieces of caddis cloth were fulled. The water of the Gardon d'Alès was partially dammed and collected in a gourgue (basin) to activate the mill’s horizontal wheels. When the water re-emerged, it was channelled into béals (irrigation channels). A 2 km-long béal irrigated meadows and chestnut trees all the way to below Le Grenier.