Читать книгу Walking in the Cevennes. 31 walks and the Tour of Mont Lozere онлайн

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The whole region is now a protected national park, created in 1970 and consisting of 230,000 hectares of rolling upland covered in moorland and forest. Unlike other French national parks, however, it has a permanent population of around 600 people, mostly sheep farmers, in its central zone. Every year in June there is a Fête de la Transhumance (sheep-droving festival) when the shepherds bring up their enormous flocks of sheep to graze on the upland pasture – the sheep are decorated with balls of wool and look very colourful. There are three main drailles (sheep paths) in the Cevennes, all going northwards – the Aubrac from Le Vigan or village of Valleraugue; the Margeride from St-Hippolyte-du-Fort; and the Gevaudan from St-Jean-du-Gard and Alès.

A hundred years ago Mont Aigoual was completely treeless and suffered from acute erosion; it was only thanks to the heroic efforts of one particular man, M. George Fabre (1844–1911), Director of Forestry, that the slopes are now covered with 15,000 hectares of forest. Not far from the summit is an arboretum and research station (called l’Hort-de-Dieu) created by the botanist Charles Flahaut from Montpellier (1852–1935), who, with the collaboration of M. Favre, planted a wide variety of species, some now over 100 years old and of impressive stature.