Serre de Banette – trail #27

5 points of interest

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  Architecture

  A technique for the future

  Today, dry-stoning is in the spotlight again due to its qualities of suppleness and drainage and its role in preventing soil erosion and floods. Dry-stoning is a technique that respects the environment, is energy-efficient and based on the valuable heritage bequeathed by our ancestors. It is destined for a bright future.

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  Agriculture

  Some reference points

  The path is at an altitude of about 900m, which, locally, is the maximum altitude for chestnut trees. Chestnuts are one of the few possibilities for producing food on the otherwise uncultivated slopes where the trees grow. It is estimated that, every year, chestnuts are harvested on 1,500 hectares of orchards in the Cévennes, which is 4% of the total surface area.

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  Architecture

  Le Viala

  This ensemble of farmhouses (mas) with their characteristic Cevenol architecture and layout has been remarkably well renovated. It is part of Saint-Frézal-de-Ventalon. Two handsome properties set slightly apart precede the hamlet. The first mas has an imposing façade. The studded chestnut door overlooks a beautiful, rounded staircase made from schist flagstones. The houses are partly built onto the bedrock, which is the only way of compensating for the lack of foundations. It also preserved as much fertile soil as possible to be used for irrigated meadows, or terraced gardens equipped with reservoirs that are productive thanks to their good exposure. The roofs are made from tilestones of differing sizes that overlap like shiny scales.

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  Agriculture

  The chestnut orchard

  The Destourbe orchard, at over 800 m in altitude, is an orchard of traditional chestnut varieties, most of which are dried in a purpose-built building, a clède. A herd of goats keeps down the undergrowth. Chestnut trees grew naturally in the Cévennes. Then, from the 12th century onwards, Benedictine monks planted, grafted and selected varieties to create chestnut orchards. The chestnut thus became the so-called “bread tree” of the Cevenol people. The most common variety is the Figarette, which is very small, crops early and is excellent clède-dried. The Pélégrine, which is quite big and delicious, is the best variety since it is not internally divided and is easy to peel. Research over the past 30 years has made it possible to rehabilitate chestnut orchards. Treatments for endothia (a fungus that propagates on the bark and ravages chestnut orchards), grafting and pruning as well as technical means to facilitate harvesting (nets, machines for crushing and peeling) now exist. The chestnut has been made more attractive by processing into puree, flour, jam, etc. To promote the Cevenol chestnut orchards, the association “Chemin de la Châtaigne” brings together farmers, artisans, guides and innkeepers.

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  History

  In the days of the Camisards

  The cemetery contains the graves of Protestants, whose religion was banned by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes until the French Revolution and who therefore had to bury their dead on private land. The hamlet of L’Espinas is among the places of remembrance of the Camisard War (1702-1704): the revolt by the Protestants of the Cévennes against Royal Catholic rule.