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

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Why the Cevennes is so little known is something of an enigma, as only the Rhône valley separates the region from Provence, the most visited area of France. But the Cevennes is so different that it could be worlds away. In place of cosy hilltop villages, the Cevennes landscape is harsh, mountainous and deserted. The weather is more extreme – the winters are cold and windblown, snow often covering the higher slopes, and the summers are dry and hot. This is not a place to appeal to the well-heeled retirement crowd or the casual tourist. The Cevennes attracts those who have a taste for a more rugged and subtle landscape – the mysterious emptiness of its endless hillsides that look like the blue crests of waves rolling to a misty horizon, the deep dark gorges and flat, stark plains resembling the Russian steppes. The Cevenese people are dour and taciturn until you get to know them but also independent and tough, with a devotion to a Calvinistic faith that sets them apart from neighbouring regions.