Causses and Cévennes

The World Heritage Site of Causses and Cévennes was not part of the original plan that my friend and I planned to visit during our trip to Pyrenes, the photos that we searched on Google and the reviews were not inspiring for an extra day detour until we found out that the must go of this cultural landscape was the beautiful area of Gorges du Tarn especially the surrounding villages near Sainte Enimie. We entered this World Heritage Site from Ales, we found that the scenery was quite boring with hilly landscape of forest, nothing special except some poor maintenance French villages. The view changed when we reached the town of Florec, from here we started to see the unique landscape that made Causses and Cévennes to be listed by UNESCO, the very large limestone plateau. The deep valley around the plateau was very nice. When we reached the village of Ispagnac, the scenic road was built along the deep canyon of Gorges du Tarn that formed by Tarn River. The canyon was actually very nice and we really surprised to see such geographical phenomenon in France.

The first place that really worth to mention is the village of Castelbouc. The village is located on the opposite side of the river from the main road on the much lower level from the street view. Actually we could easy bypass this village without notice, fortunately that we saw three motorcycles parked on the small viewpoint ramp, …

I spent several days travelling through this rugged area of the Massif Central. My journey started in Ales, from where I travelled by bus up the Gardon d'Ales and over the Jalcreste Pass to reach Florac in the Cevennes. Here the local mode of transport is the donkey, many named Modestine after the animal that accompanied Robert Louis Stevenson on his travels here. In evidence too are the Protestant churches of the Camisards whose forbears hid here during the periods of reepression. The town features the confluence of the Tarn and Tarnon Rivers, and is overlooked by the cliffs of the Causse Mejean.

My journey continued on another bus, this one crossing the Montmirat pass on the flank of Mont Lozere, and finishing at the town of Mende, on the banks of the Lot River.

Yet another bus took me from Mende to Marvejols, following the valley of the Lot and the Causse Sauveterre.

From Marvejols I continued by train to Millau, with spectacular views of the Grand Causses and glimpses of the Tarn Gorge.

Millau was spectacular for the views afforded of the viaduct. Passing beneath the viaduct on a side trip to Saint Affrique gave another perspective.

The agro-pastoral landscape of the Causses and Cevennes spreads over a wide area and consists of high plains (Causse Méjan, Causse Noir, Causse du Larzac), mountain ranges (Cevennes, Mont Lozère, Mont Aigoual) and narrow gorges (Gorges du Tarn, Gorges de la Jonte). Not easy to figure out which sites are worthwhile to get the best impression of both the natural heritage and the rural architecture. Thus, I studied extensively the nomination dossier, identified some places that seemed to be the most interesting, and finally planned our route for the two days we had scheduled for this WHS.

We started early in the morning in Le Puy-en-Velay and after 1.5 hours we entered the core zone at the northern slopes of the Mont Lozère massif. The narrow road (D20) goes close past the highest summit of the massif, the Sommet de Finiels, to Le Pont-de-Montvert. We had a first stop near the summit for a short hike. Actually, it is a high plateau rather than a steep peak, a sparse and stony landscape with conifers and yellow broom. Apart from us there was nobody around and the morning fog made a bit of a spooky atmosphere. Le Pont-de-Montvert is one of the larger villages in the area. We bought some cheese and the obligatory baguette to get through the day, and continued our trip heading towards the Gorges du Tarn. We took the narrow road D35 and came past lonely barnyards and through small hamlets, and saw some typical examples of …

The Causses and the Cévennes cover a really large region, and as others have noticed it is not immediately clear where to go to see its essence (it's a cultural landscape). Driving up north from Toulouse (which takes over 2 hours), I decided to take the highway from Lozère to Millau and take some detours from there. This highway already crosses the core zone by the way.

My first goal was to see the Cirque de Navacelles. These "Cirques" are one of the peculiar features of the landscape here. They are amphitheater-like valleys. Standing on the edge, it looks just like an enormous meteorite has landed. But it was all made by glacier erosion. This site lies about 28km from the main road. I also saw lots of large birds of prey (vultures?) circling around there.

It was back to the main highway until I reached Millau. A small mountain road from there reaches further inland and finally ends at the Chaos of Montpellier-le-Vieux. This is a karst landscape with strangely shaped rocks, just like the Chinese love them. In the summertime, it is a very popular tourist site, but I only encountered one other couple in the parking lot. I choose to do the 1.5-hour red hike around the park: a pleasure to just be outside in nature in this fine weather. At the end of that walk, I finally encountered two man-made constructions in the landscape that are pointed out in the description of this WHS: …

I visited this vast WHS in April 2012. I enjoyed the picturesque landscape contrasts of garigue, trees, streams, etc. Best to visit by car on a sunny day and then enjoy trekking and hiking in the countryside.