Storm Bell Towers
Hike to discover the villages on the slopes of the Mont Lozère mountain, and their traditions. All the villages and hamlets of the Mont Lozère share an important heritage, a reflection of an intense rural life.
The storm bell towers once punctuated the hamlet’s activity, and were used as a sound marker. During the long winter months, the storm and turmoil, blowing wind sweeping the powdery snow, limited the links between the villages and surprised the travelers. They owed their salvation to the sound of the bell operated by the villagers, signaling the proximity of a shelter.
Bramont canyon
Hike to discover the Bramont canyon, which brook has its source on the Mount Lozère, at the foot of the Roc des Laubies. After a brief ride on the mountain, it descends the granite ledge by digging an acute valley, which then blooms in the marls of the Valdonnez. Mule tracks linked the villages of the mountain to those of the valley.
Discover also the Bondons site, great witness of the sedimentary grounds which once completely covered the Cévennes’ granites and schists. These long limestone ridges of the Bondons are the most important regional megalithic whole: more than 150 laying menhirs and 4 dolmens.
Masseguin Causse
Hike to discover the Masseguin Causse (local word for plateau). The poor and constraining environment, where lumber and rainwater are valuable goods, has led the inhabitants to create a typical architecture. Based on the use of the only material available, the limestone, ubiquitous in every construction, a construction on vaults is mostly used.
You will find on the Causses here and there the so-called “chazelles”, basic slate constructions, to shelter the shepherd cattleriding their sheep.
There are also many clapas and low walls. These are stones extracted from fields, assembled in heaps or in walls. Discover also the forest of Loubière, one of the most beautiful fir trees of the Cévennes, where the rare natural pectin fir tree was widespread by foresters.
The ridges of the Mount Lozère
Hike to discover the Pic de Finiels. The highest point of the Mount Lozère, these pastoral highlands have long been a barrier to limit economic and cultural contacts between the north and south slopes. The ridge separates the Protestant Cévennes from the Catholic Margeride. You may see, during good weather, a panorama going from the Alps to the Mediterranean. The hike takes the so-called route of the unemployed, built in the 30s by workers, but also the hiking trail GR 70, the one taken by Robert Louis Stevenson and his donkey Modestine, during his Journey With A Donkey through the Cévennes in the nineteenth century.
The Tournel castle
Hike to discover the Tournel castle, which housed as of the twelfth century the Barony du Tournel. This citadel of shale, of which only ruins remain today, overlooking the Lot river, seemed impregnable. At the foot of the stone walls and towers watching the high valley lies the former hamlet of Tournel. The castle was abandoned in the 17th century after the destruction of part of its fortifications ordered by Richelieu. Discover also the village of Saint Julien du Tournel, and its 12th – 13th century Roman church.
Le Roc des Chiens Fous (the Mad Dogs’ Rock)
Hike to discover the Mount Lozère, and its natural features: granite and erosion revealing, on the slopes and at the bottom of the valleys, chaos of rounded blocks of granite or even massive rock. Discover also peat bogs, covered with sphagnum and mosses, able to store up to 3000m3 of water per hectare.
The Tarn spring
Hike to discover the Tarn, which rises in the hollow of a valley, in a set of peat bogs that ensures a high flow to the river from its first kilometer. At the beginning of its course, the Tarn is a cold stream, with pure water, acid and little mineralized. Discover also the Mas Camargues Farm, the Mount Lozere’s ecomuseum, and territory of Templar Knights. The courses and forests of the summit of Mount Lozère belonged until 1795 to the Knights of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, who had installed the Commandery of Gap Francès in the Hospital hamlet. Their property was bounded by planted stones marked with the Maltese cross, emblem of the order.
Program for information, depending on weather conditions
