Les Balcons de l’Aigoual: a land art circuit

Fauna and flora

History and culture

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A unique land art circuit in the National Park’s central zone proposing 14 regularly renewed installations, which are inspired by the natural environment and scenery of Mont Aigoual.

Here artists present the relationship between humans and nature and their encounter with the climatic phenomena of Mont Aigoual. Their works are therefore constantly evolving. Art inserted into the environment connects with a fundamental source of creativity for artists: observing and being inspired by nature. This circuit takes you through different atmospheres and sites, and proposes a sensitive and intimate approach to nature.

7 points of interest

Know-how
On the Verge (Yoann Crépin)
A doorway to a circuit of art within the natural environment.
To fuse and interact with the environment and play with the seasons, time, light and weightlessness. To let humanity express itself through nature and nature express itself through humanity – a necessary interaction, a symbiotic interaction that inspires us to discover another world.
Water
Catchment Area (Xavier Rèche)
By its location and name, this installation evokes the nearby watershed between the Atlantic and Mediterranean. A vessel reduced to a suspended wooden framework, without strakes or gunwale, tilts in the direction of the runoff. It emphasises the first branches of a gigantic drainage system.
Landscape
Seated (Marie-Hélène Richard)
Far from town, paths open the door to new rhythms. Another vision of life and time lets us breathe in the ever-present contemplation, stones, trees and skies. A physical experience of coming face-to-face with nature. A bench made of wood and branches, whose back becomes thinner as it rises towards the sky, as if to turn back into a tree.
Landscape
Cell (Marie Gueydon de Dives)
This artwork, natural in architecture but artificial in execution, represents a passage between the interior and exterior worlds. Posing or opposing while questioning the notions of limit, porousness and opening.
This work encourages you to come inside but feel outside. To be the contemplative eye, the receiving ear, the conscience that objectifies reality.
History
Tempus Fugit (Fiona Paterson, Donald Buglass)
Time flies, conscience cries, death threatens, heaven invites, hell scolds, and man sleeps. Here, the effects of time and natural elements transform the wood used in the artwork; everything is an endless renewal at the same rate as the passing hours. How much time have we got left before everything is lost and it is too late to repair the damage? Nature will continue on its trajectory and efface the traces of Humanity on Earth.
Archaeology
Archeosmart (Marc Limousin)
Smartphone imprints appear on the rocks: fossils of the present that will become mysterious in the future. This carved stone, like the cup-shaped marks and other rock art of the region, discloses history revealed in matter and resonates with Malraux’s phrase: “The future is a present given to us by the past”.
Flora
Leaf-Tree (Alain Bernegger)
Leaf-Trees use a veined structure to create a visual resonance between the tree and the leaf. The change of scale works like an inverted echo of this fractal structure. And as winter comes, the eternal summer of the Leaf-Trees confronts the winter of the bare branches.

Description

The circuit gradually leaves the activity centre and enters the foliage, then goes through a wooden arch. After 500 m, it reaches the decommissioned D249 that takes you all the way to the summit. This path is for pedestrians and accessible to pushchairs and wheelchairs. The downhill return is on the GR 6 long-distance hiking trail, which is accessible only to hikers. The blue pictogram waymarks the entire circuit.

Departure : Prat Peyrot outdoors activity centre
Arrival : Prat Peyrot outdoors activity centre
Towns crossed : Val-d'Aigoual and Bassurels

Forecast

Altimetric profile

Recommandations

At the summit of Mont Aigoual, weather conditions can change rapidly.
Before setting out, seek advice from the tourist office. This circuit is prohibited in strong winds or snowy conditions.

Is in the midst of the park

The national park is an unrestricted natural area but subjected to regulations which must be known by all visitors.

Information desks

Tourism & national parc'house

Col de la Serreyrède, 30570 Val d'Aigoual

https://www.sudcevennes.com office-du-tourisme-causse@wanadoo.fr 04 67 82 64 67

The Maison de l'Aigoual houses the tourism office Mont Aigoual Causses Cévennes and the Maison du Parc national. This visitor centre provides information on and raises awareness of the Cévennes National Park, its sites and events as well as the rules that must be observed in the National Park's central zone.

On site: changing exhibitions, video projections, Festival Nature events and shop Open year-round

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Weather observatory Mont Aigoual

Sommet de l'Aigoual, 30570 Val d'Aigoual

https://www.aigoual.fr/meteosite@aigoual.fr 04 67 42 59 83

This site is part of the National Park's associated tourist-information network, whose mission is to provide information on, and raise awareness of, the sites and events as well as the rules that must be observed in the National Park's central zone.
Open from mid-April to early October

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Transport

www.lio.laregion.fr

Access and parking

From Valleraugue (D986), via the Col de la Serreyrède Pass towards Mont Aigoual (or on the D48 from Le Vigan).

From Florac, via the Col du Perjuret Pass towards Mont Aigoual on the D998 and D18.

Parking :

Car park at the activity centre