Cévenol valleys – trail #28

7 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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  History

  Champdomergue

  In the field are the ruins of Champdomergue where, in 1702, the first confrontation of the Camisard War took place between those fighting for freedom of conscience and Louis XIV’s soldiers. Champdomergue was a commemorative site until 1937.
  In 1943 and 1944, Champdomergue sheltered a Resistance unit of German and Spanish antifascists, Armenians and Russians (deserters and escaped prisoners) and French men. They actively participated in the Vallée Longue Resistance through various acts against the Gestapo and the French Milice.

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  History

  The departmental railway (CFD)

  Inaugurated in 1909, the departmental railway (CFD) linking Florac with Sainte-Cécile d’Andorge required 15 tunnels and 53 road and rail bridges. It was closed down in 1968 for lack of profitability. The line is being progressively turned into a walking and cycling path, which offers picturesque views over the meanders of the rivers Mimente and Gardon d’Alès (Vallée Longue).

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  History

  The temple of St- Frézal de Ventalon

  The temple (Protestant church) replaced a Catholic church that had been burnt down by the Camisards. The municipality bought the adjacent ruins in the early 1980s to turn them into a group gîte, an apartment and a community centre. In the hamlet of Le Géripon, you can see a small family cemetery. Cévenol Protestants, not having access to Catholic cemeteries, buried their dead on their land. 

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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.

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  Architecture

  The hamlet of L'Espinas

  Built on a transport route used throughout the centuries, the hamlet of L’Espinas was a stopover for travellers and itinerant shepherds and their livestock moving between the plains and highland pastures. It lies on one of the branches of the Jalcreste draille, the ancestral drovers’ road that follows the ridge.