The Cevennes National Park

When the Cevennes National Park was finally created in 1970, its perimeter borrowed what was considered the limit of the last Wurm glaciation.

The boundaries avoid inhabited valleys and confine the protected space to high plateaus, bare or wooded mountains where one can travel along balcony roads or watershed routes. The park spans the departments of Lozère and Gard, encroaching on Ardèche. And it disregards geological partitions to showcase the magnificence of everything that has grown, flora or architecture, on schist, granite, or limestone. The Cevennes National Park combines unique features: it is the largest park in France and also the only one located in the mid-mountains.

Regardless, the beauty of the Cevennes resides in their deeply humanized landscapes. Landscapes shaped and animated by human hands for centuries and centuries.

If the Cevennes National Park is not quite like other parks, it is primarily for this reason. Along with Port-Cros, they are the only two in France to have permanent residents in their central zone, 600 today in the Cevennes compared to 430 in 1971. Under the harsh climate of the Cevennes mountains, a population has always clung on. A tough population, herding livestock along the paths, maintaining terraces, cultivating chestnut or mulberry trees, or extracting coal from the mine galleries.

A population descended from the Camisards and maquisards, remaining proud and protective of its solitude and secrets. The descendants of generations of resistors did not, of course, accept without struggle the "grasp" of the State over their Cevennes through the creation of the Cevennes National Park by decree on September 2, 1970. The threats to customary freedoms sparked a fierce opposition, yet troubled by the woes of desertification. Most municipalities lost five-sixths of their population between 1920 and 1970.

To avoid the suicidal choice of abandoning the mountains, some Cevennes locals ultimately rallied under another banner. That of the national park, but a park they wanted to be cultural. The signed contract indeed aims to reconcile genuine protection of nature with respect for rural economy. In a quarter of a century, the national park has, for example, managed to work with farmers. The public establishment purchased nearly 5,000 hectares to rent to volunteers who agreed to work on their farms by signing environmental plans.

This more balanced management of natural environments, including the less productive ones, has notably helped save rustic breeds such as Aubrac cows and raïols sheep. The "Mazenot contracts," work contracts for residents who maintained paths, restored terraces, irrigation channels (béals), or cleaned fire-sensitive areas, also contributed to building lasting ties between the farming population and the park teams.

On Mont Lozère, one can even meet farmers happy to have been able to continue practicing their livestock farming profession with pride without being offended by having also been, in their own way, "gardeners of the landscape."

When thinking of development in a region like the Cevennes, tourism also comes to mind. While it is difficult to escape this new industry, it is equally challenging to reconcile management imperatives and natural balances, respect for architectural heritage, and quality, etc.

From the start, the national park, one of whose objectives is to welcome and inform the public, must also curb the perverse effects of this attraction to the Cevennes nature. The park's territory, as vast as it is, does not prevent certain spots like the summit of Aigoual or the gorges of Tarn and Jonte from being overrun, and the wildlife and flora "disturbed" by tourist attendance estimated at about 800,000 visitors per year by the mid-1990s. The implementation of stricter regulations, more severe marking of accessible areas, and education remain the only tools available to park agents. And they sometimes seem quite inadequate.

But the richness of the Cevennes landscapes easily explains this enthusiasm. In just a few dozen kilometers, one can indeed pass from Mt Lozère, a granite world exposed to winds, to the Causses, limestone plateaus veined with aven and caves, then to the Aigoual massif, reforested since the last century, and finally to the narrow schist valleys of the Cevennes once cultivated. This diversity, combined with the juxtaposition of three climates: Mediterranean, oceanic, and continental, as well as the presence of four vegetation levels, allows for an extremely varied flora to develop.

Such an environment naturally favors the presence of a diversified fauna as well. Especially since the national park actively pursued a reintroduction policy of species that had disappeared from the region for several decades until 1995. Deer, roe deer, capercaillies, and beavers have thus re-established themselves in the Cevennes massifs. And we must of course mention the griffon vultures (over 230 by the end of 1997) and the monk vultures - 20 individuals - that have recolonized the gorges and cliffs of the causse.

This reintroduction operation, which has gained worldwide reputation, has become a beautiful story for the thousands of curious visitors attracted by the raptors returned to their homeland. The adventure will be showcased starting in spring 1998 at the Vulture Observatory, built at Truel. One can witness the result of nearly twenty years of scientific work conducted on the ground with the Intervention Fund for Raptors (FIR).

The law of July 22, 1960, and the decree of October 31, 1961, set the conditions for creating French national parks. The first in the world, Yosemite National Park, was born in the United States in 1864. The creation of a park occurs in two phases. The first, a long - sometimes very long - consultation process with all interested parties, must lead to a compromise between the interests of the parties involved. Then, the theoretical boundaries and regulations of the future park are finalized, and the project is submitted to public inquiry. Subsequently, the Prime Minister decides to create the park by a decree in the Council of State. National parks are funded by the State and managed by public establishments under the authority of the Ministry of Land Planning and the Environment. Their directors are appointed by order of the minister in charge of the environment.

The primary vocation of national parks is to protect natural heritage. To do this, they rely on the regulations set by their creation decree. This applies only in the "central" zone. In the so-called "peripheral" zone, parks must promote a sustainable development in consultation with elected officials and associations.

Their main aims are: to ensure biological diversity; to make this heritage available to the public; to contribute to the sustainable development of the territory by promoting activities, such as traditional agriculture, that support it; to foster behaviors respectful of nature and its balances. The central zones of the six national parks in mainland France - there is also one in Guadeloupe - represent 0.65% of the national territory.

The name Cevennes, derived from the Hebrew Giben or the Celtic Keben, means, in both languages, mountain. This double etymology, both religious and national, a common root of all Greek and Latin names for the Cevennes, likely has a primitive root in the ancient idioms of India. The Cevennes chain, about a hundred leagues long, connects the Pyrenees to the Alps. From its northern plateau, its peaks, which sometimes rise to a height of a thousand fathoms, form a gigantic staircase whose steep steps continuously descend southward, down to the black rocks that support Agde and Brescou, and then merge with the beach sands and the stormy waves of the gulf.

Most are ancient volcanoes whose lava, flowing down the lateral slopes, descended in fiery flows, on one side down to the depths of the gorges of Forez and Velay, and on the other down to the quaking bed of the Rhône. But their craters, now extinct and covered with forests, no longer pour out on their slopes, dressed in meadows, anything but countless clear springs, which form, by merging, several considerable rivers. To the west, the Loire, the Allier, the Lot, and the Tarn rush toward the Ocean; to the east, the Erieu, the Ardèche, the Cèze, and the Gardon flow into the Rhône; finally, in the south, two small rivers, the Hérault and the Vidourle flow into the Mediterranean. In Vivarais, especially, more troubled by the volcanoes, the crests, torn into vast sections of crenellated walls, in colonnades, in cones, resemble citadels of basalt in ruins which, intermingled with woods, meadows, caves, torrents, and waterfalls, create landscapes of a wildness that is sometimes horrifying, sometimes graceful, and almost always delightful.

Let us position ourselves in the middle of the Cevennes chain; let us ascend to Lozère. It is the geographical center of this story, the wild seminary from which the most numerous and famous desert pastors emerged, and the always bubbling center from which uprisings spread to the surrounding provinces. From this summit, the eye can almost survey the theater, in bird's flight, or at least distinguish the vast horizons. There are three that envelop it like three belts.

The first, that of the Cevennes proper, is formed by the Tarn, the Rhône, the Hérault, and the sea. The second, where the events, too narrow in their cradle, overflow into the neighboring provinces, is bounded by Cantal, the courses of the Erieu and Drôme, of the Lot and Garonne, the Pyrenees, the Alps, and the Mediterranean. Lastly, the third, where people and events get lost in exile, encompasses all of Western Europe. Thus, leaving aside a few passing insurrections that get lost in the valleys of Rouergue and Dauphiné, our main territory includes six dioceses: three along the Rhône, Viviers, Uzès, and Nîmes; three parallel to the west, Mende, Alès, and Montpellier. Mende and Viviers to the north; Alès and Uzès in the center; Montpellier and Nîmes in the south. These six dioceses now form the four departments of Ardèche, Lozère, Gard, and Hérault.

The diocese of Viviers, composed of three hundred fourteen parishes, is divided into two regions, extending parallelly from south to north, the high Vivarais over the Cevennes summits, and the low Vivarais along the Rhône. The high Vivarais is subdivided into northern mountains, or Boutières, and southern ones, or Tanargues. The Bordières, from where the Erieu flows, are a group of gigantic granite sugarloaf mountains, whose bare peaks, jagged ridges, and horrible precipices offer the eye, in the distance, the image of a world crumbling and perishing from age. Only chestnut groves, hemp fields, and pastures germinate on their barren ridges. They form the entire fortune of these poor mountaineers, who live off chestnuts and dairy, spin their hemp and wool, and tan the hides of their herds.

The Tanargues are the highest Cevennes peaks; Mézenc, their king; Gerbier-de-Joncs, the prosoncoupe or crater of the meadows. These mountains, covered with almost eternal snows and vast forests, hold the sources of the great rivers and, consequently, the finest pastures and the largest herds. Their valleys, more grandiose, more picturesque, more fertile, produce all kinds of cereals and fruits, except for grapes.

The low Vivarais is composed of two main basins, separated by the Coiron chain: to the north, that of the Erieu, backed by the Boutières; to the south, that of the Ardèche, at the foot of the Tanargues. These mountains, degenerated into steep hills, descend towards the Rhône, present their steep slopes to the east, where mulberries, olive trees, and delicious grape clusters grow. The livestock here consists of silkworms and bees.

The most mentioned places in its chronicles are Tournon, Chalençon, Vals, on the Causee-des-Géants, Privas, from where Louis XIII and Richelieu were repelled by Montbrun, who paid for this glory with his head (1629), Vallon, with its immense caves, and Saint-Jean, where the ancient pious inhabitants, taking refuge in the crater of Montbrul, dug, in the vast pores of its gigantic scoriae shaped like towers, a multitude of small cells, and, evangelical bees, draw their alveoli even from the very vents of the volcano.

In the 12th century, Vivarais received the doctrine of Valdo, who took refuge in these mountains, and in the 16th century, that of Luther, from the mouth of one of his disciples, known by the symbolic name of Machopolis. Indeed, at this time of great struggles of the human spirit, each head was a fortress of intelligence, each tongue a sword of thought. Protestantism established itself in almost all its parishes, and in several islands of the Rhône, including Lavoulte and Pousin, similar, as their names indicate, to the brood of a bird that, pursued on land, would have hidden in the reeds of the river its nest often rolled by the waves.

The diocese of Mende, a corner with one hundred seventy-three parishes, is entirely within Gévaudan. Lozère cuts a third off to the south: this is the high Cevennes proper. This mountain, resembling a great undulating wall, separates the high Catholic Gévaudan from the lower, almost entirely Protestant, and divides their populations who, although of the same blood, have in their genius the difference and antipathy of their rival religions. Let us turn our backs to Gévaudan, which stretches over the mountains of Margeride, the monastic Aubrac, and the Palais-du-Roi, the palace of winter, a morose tyrant who, from his throne no less stormy than that of monarchs, is every year precipitated by the sun. Behind us, the feudal and monastic Mende, isolated from the world, hides in an abyss like in a sepulcher. It lies at the foot of Mount Mimat, whose summit carries, like an eagle's nest, the cave of Saint-Privat. A hermit still inhabits it and grows, thus living, the successor of this first apostle of Gévaudan.

Now, the high Cevennes are all before us, to the south, pressed together like a flock herded between the two Tarn and the two Gardon. These four torrents form, by their closely located sources and their confluences, a vast diamond, whose four towns or cities mark the corners: Florac to the north, Ners to the south, Genouillac to the east, and Saint-André-de-Valborgne to the west. However, the mountains that overflow to the north of this enclosure of torrents do not fill it to the south, stopping at Anduze and Alès, before the junction of the two Gardon. The high Cevennes appear to us as a confused mass of deeply torn mountains by the torrents, and whose granite ridges surround, bare and bristling, the three vast limestone plateaus of L'Hôpital, L'Hospitalet, and Cosse: the first covered with forests, the second with pastures, and the third with cereals.

In winter, their peaks are battered by impetuous winds and snow whirlwinds; in summer, they are subject to mist, hail, and thunder. Five or six hundred towns, hamlets, and sheepfolds are scattered in their gorges, suspended over the torrents, perched on the rocks, whose steep paths, winding from one to another, are accessible only to the agile hoof of the mule. Let us travel along the two sides of the diamond, up to its northern angle. The Tarn, descending from the plateau of L'Hôpital, shaded by the forest of Faus-des-Armes (beeches of the battle), waters, two leagues lower, the Pont-de-Montvert, three hamlets thrown between three torrents and connected by two arches.

The Tarnon, which emerges from Aigoal, bathes Vébron, a large town, Salgas, a feudal mansion flanked by four enormous towers. It receives the Mimente, whose waters, colored like blood after storms, mix with its own, blonde like murky oil, and pass under Florac. Florac, a small walled city, built on a slope at the foot of Cosse, whose eastern end, bristling with tower-shaped rocks, resembles the ruins of a citadel. From their base, a bubbling, clear spring gushes forth, giving the city, which it washes, the name of Flower of Water (Flos aquaticus). Soiled by its filth, it flows into the Tarnon, and a bit further down, merges with it into the Tarn, at the Pré du Seigneur, which so many torrents cannot quench, as the proverb says, so vast it is.

Let us ascend the Mimente, this torrent of violets (mimosensis), and through this door, penetrate into the interior of the high Cevennes. Here is first Salle-Montvaillant, Saint-Julien-d'Arpaon, then Cassagnas and its caves. The torrent has its source at Bougès, whose northern peak, covered with a forest called Altefage (alta fagus), is crowned by three ancient beeches. At its feet, to the north, lies Grisac, the birthplace of Pope Urban V. Let us wander through this inextricable labyrinth of mountains and forests. Among this infinite multitude of hamlets, only two towns are somewhat noteworthy: Barre-des-Cévennes, to the west, and, to the east, Saint-Germain-de-Carlberte. From Barre and from Saint-Germain flow two small torrents whose courses mimic the bifurcation and the sinuosities of the two Gardon, which embrace the high Cevennes. The western one waters Bousquet-la-Barthe, Maulezon, Sainte-Croix, Notre-Dame-de-Valfrancesque or de la Victoire, so named for a victory won by Charles Martel over the Moors. The Frankish prince founded a chapel to the Virgin on the battlefield, still strewn with weapon fragments, named the Ferroulant. The stream that bathes it joins the eastern torrent which flows down from Saint-Étienne, a walled town, after which these two tributaries form a small Gardon, which takes its name from Mialet where it is believed to flow before joining lower down into that of Anduze. Meanwhile, the two main Gardon, born, one from Anduze, at the camp of L'Hospitalet, the other from Alès, near Champ-Domergue, cross, the first, Saint-André-de-Valborgne, whose name expresses the horror of its site; the second, the Collet de Dèze, and descend, impetuously, forming the southern belt of the high Cevennes, which they separate from the diocese of Alès, where they will reunite.

Created by decree on September 2, 1970. Central zone: 91,279 hectares, 52 municipalities (Lozère and Gard), Permanent population: nearly 600 souls. Peripheral zone: 229,726 hectares. 117 municipalities (Lozère, Gard, and Ardèche) and 41,000 inhabitants. Park budget in 1998: 31.8 million francs. 66 permanent employees, about a dozen non-permanent employees, and twenty seasonal workers.

Twinned since 1984 with the Saguenay National Park in Quebec. It joined in 1985 the international network of biosphere reserves, launched by UNESCO. The Cevennes reserve is twinned with that of Montseny in Catalonia.

Mid-mountain park: Mount Lozère reaches a height of 1,699 meters. Three climatic influences (oceanic, Mediterranean, and continental); geological diversity (limestone, granite, and schist). More than 1,600 plant species: 35 protected species and 21 species unique to the world. Forests have colonized 58,000 hectares in the central zone. 89 species of mammals, 208 birds, 35 reptiles and amphibians, and 24 fish. The national park has reintroduced deer, roe deer, beavers, griffon vultures, monk vultures, and capercaillies.

Flat landscapes, which endure an almost as harsh winter as in the Arctic Circle, crisscrossed by streams that converge in the valleys. The waters of the Tarn flow peacefully amidst pastures and peat bogs. Up to an altitude of 1,300 meters, herds of Aubrac cattle, increasingly frequent, graze near hamlets and traditional farms that remain active. The poverty or richness of pastures has always depended in Mount Lozère on the management of water. Irrigation has played a significant role. Traces of the béais - channels - which were several kilometers long can still be found, allowing water to be conveyed to homes, irrigate meadows, and turn mills.

Another particular feature of Mount Lozère is the presence of peat bogs. Nearly a thousand have been counted, some covering several dozen hectares (peat bog of Sagnes). These acidic "pools," remnants of the glacial era, allow mosses, sedges, or the sundew, a carnivorous plant, to thrive. Frogs and migratory birds such as the sandpipers and lapwings also appreciate the peat bogs, which, by absorbing large volumes of water and releasing it gradually, regulate its cycle.

The northern slope of the mountain of Bougès does not differ much in its configuration from Mount Lozère. Its southern slope, on the other hand, takes on more southern accents with hamlets of schist and chestnut groves.

In these regions, the evolution of vegetation reflects largely the history of pastoralism and, conversely, the presence of the forest. Thus, the beech and fir forests that populated Mount Lozère during the Gallo-Roman period have been gradually destroyed by livestock. However, since the beginning of the 20th century, the heath, pines, and birches have begun to reclaim the abandoned pastures. The ONF also promotes the planting of beeches and firs. Wild boars, deer, and roe deer have colonized these forests. And on the northern slope of Bougès, the national park has reintroduced the capercaillie, which had disappeared for two centuries.

To better get acquainted with this region, the Cevennes National Park offers visitors the opportunity to make an initial stop at the Eco-museum of Mount Lozère, whose central point is located at Pont-de-Montvert.

Hiking in the Cevennes
The Cevennes offer a royal choice for walkers. More than 2,000 kilometers of marked trails are dotted with gîtes d'étape and guesthouses (each year, the national park publishes an updated brochure) and sometimes inns are available for enthusiasts.
- Long-distance hiking trails: the GR®7 and its variants GR®70 Stevenson Trail, GR®71 and GR®72, GR®6 and its two variants, GR®60 the great draille path, and GR®62, as well as GR®43 and GR®44.
- Long-distance circuits: alongside the GR, these form routes around the main massifs: the tour of Mont Aigoual GR®66, 78 km, the tour of the Cevennes GR®67, 130 km, the tour of Mount Lozère GR®68, 110 km, and the Tour of Causse Méjean GR of country, 100 km.
- Landscape discovery trails, lasting a few hours and accessible to nearly everyone, have been created by the national park. A hiking guide for the park is available for sale at the information centers.
- Nature interpretation trails, with explanatory tables.
- Guided trails of the national park: in summer, departing from the information centers and requiring prior registration, they provide, under the guidance of park staff, a better discovery of the region.

The main resources of the territory around 1950 were: beef farming in the granite and basalt mountains; sheep farming in the limestone mountains with summer transhumance; cereals in the plain of Velay and on the plateau of Rouergue; chestnuts and sweet chestnuts in Vivarais and Rouergue; vegetables and fruits in the Rhône valley; vineyards in Lower Languedoc; Roquefort cheese.

For industry: steelworks in Saint-Etienne and its satellite towns in the Gier valley; ribbon manufacturing in Saint-Etienne, Bourg-Argental, Annonay; spinning and weaving mills in Mazamet, Castres, and Lodève; leather tanning in Millau and Annonay; lace from Le Puy en Velay. Finally, silk, which, in the dependency of Lyon, occupies part of the activity on the entire eastern slope of the Cevennes. However, just as the difficulty in finding shepherds led to the gradual decline of sheep herds, the high cost of labor, which followed the disappearance of family businesses, led to the rapid decline of silk farms. The industrial production of artificial silk has raised, while totally modifying, this once vibrant industry.

Vocabulary. — A certain number of words from the geographical glossary, Languedocian, are commonly used: truc, isolated summit; suc, suchet or suquet, rounded summit; puech, py, puy or pi, often volcanic dome; baou, baousse, small summit; bar, barre, summit in bar, from the Celtic barr, closure; caylard, cheylard, from kaïr, steep rock; cham, summit; claps, clapas, rockfalls; peyre, stone (la Peyro Plantado, planted stone, not as a sacred menhir but for useful marking in the "sibères" or snowstorms); serre, serreyrède, mountain in a jagged barrier, sierra; causse, limestone plateau; can, a very small causse layered on granites; avens or tindouls, holes and sinks for water absorption in the Causses; baumes and spelunks, caves; béai, béalière, small irrigation canal; lavogne, in the Causses, open sky cistern collecting rainwater for livestock drinking; fou, sorgue, spring, resurgence of water from the limestone plateaus; ratchs, whirlpools in rivers; plantai, calm basin due to water retention; mas, house; casaouet, cazalet, chazelle or tchazelle, round stone cabin with a conical roof; draille or draye, transhumance path, located on watershed ridges.

The last griffon vultures were killed in the 1940s... Thirty years later, a handful of naturalists took the bet to reintroduce these raptors in the Jonte gorges. Despite natural difficulties and local reluctance, the operation succeeded. It has been hailed worldwide. More than two hundred vultures now soar around Causse Méjean.

The story of some nature enthusiasts.
Above the Jonte, the great birds of the air soar with the patience of the azure. Carried by the warm air. Nature puts on a show in Lozère. For the pleasure of walkers in the gorges, the slow dance of the griffon vultures caresses eternity. However, an anthropomorphic and poetic illusion. For four decades, the limestone cliffs echoed only with the absence of the great raptors. The last boulders were exterminated in the 1940s, gradually eliminated by the bullets of hunters or the strychnine destined for foxes, wolves, and other carnivores. But the folly of some was countered by that of others. Killed by men one day, the birds were saved by men another day.

The territory of Cevennes National Park has thus far not been the theater of too many strong disputes, despite a proactive policy regarding reintroduction. It would have been otherwise if lynx had been reintroduced in the region... The question arose a few years ago. The national park refused to embark on this path. However, many naturalists do not rule out seeing lynx and perhaps wolves reappear spontaneously in the Cevennes, in Gévaudan where a beast far too human has terrorized generations since the 18th century. The feared felines have already gained ground in the Alps, and wolves have crossed the Italian border to settle in Mercantour... Managing animal populations.

In 1995, this threat was not, however, the primary concern of the managers of the Cevennes National Park, who easily agree that reintroduction methods have refined and that scientific monitoring of animals reintroduced into a territory that must suit them is becoming more precise. However, not everything is going well in a world spared by these great predators. It is then necessary to address a delicate issue: the damage caused by game. Damages caused by hordes of wild boars and bands of deer (the latter have been reintroduced by the park), causing serious harm to agricultural operations and forest populations. Healthy and prolific animals that have multiplied in recent years in certain areas of the Cevennes, but also in many regions of France. This progression is due to the forest environment, agricultural decline, and is at the expense of the hare and partridge.

The public establishment's officials wrote in La Lettre du parc: it is "a true ordeal for the Cevennes." They have therefore decided to act as an example by involving all stakeholders in resolving this problem. Anger swells when dozens of wild boars plow cultivated plots, destroy bancels (cultivated terraces), or béals..., when deer graze protected plants or leafy species useful to biodiversity. Farmers, foresters, and nature protectors indeed have reasons to fuel their resentment against hunters who would not be able to implement hunting plans and have made wild boar a "royal game" that people love to stock in the freezer.

To try to counter this overpopulation of animals in certain places, the park has wished to promote cooperation. The overall objective of the measures taken has been to "manage large wildlife by integrating all stakeholders and concerned interests." For wild boar, for example, the hunting season has been extended by one month, regulatory shooting has been instituted in areas prohibited for hunting - 17% of the central park area - to flush out reproductive females, administrative hunts have been organized, hunters have been required to keep a shooting log...

To return to the populations at the beginning of the 1990s for deer and roe deer, it was also necessary to regulate the populations. Again, hunting quotas were increased, regulatory shootings were implemented, but also tracking the development of populations massif by massif, measuring the impact of deer on flora. The objective is still to adapt forestry practices by favoring natural regeneration, maintaining herbaceous and woody undergrowth to hinder access to saplings and increase food for deer... Convincing foresters, especially the ONF (National Forest Office), to revise their methods is not the easiest task.

This "ordeal" of game is an opportunity for the park to assert or reaffirm certain principles of its action. One of the main objectives is of course to safeguard ecological balances by promoting the evolution of environments, but without forgetting to take into account the presence of humans. In other words, there can be no sentimentality around the issue of animal regulation.

This explosion of wild boar and deer populations has undoubtedly contributed to hasten the decision to take a "pause" in the wild species reintroduction policy. In 1995, the park director, Guillaume Benoît, stated that they were at a turning point. "We no longer have a reintroduction project; we will not be reintroducing capercaillies into nature."

The last animals reintroduced were the capercaillies (six hundred individuals until 1994). The manager explains that this marks the end of an emblematic approach. "Our real job is to think in terms of habitats and not just in species." Explanation: the capercaillie, for example, cannot be satisfied with just any forest. And it does not appreciate, for example, the hordes of mushroom pickers at all. Therefore, one cannot think of reintroducing it if one cannot offer it a suitable environment. The successor to Guillaume Benoît, Gérard Moulinas, installed in February 1998, is not expected to revert to this option, remaining true to the European concept of Natura 2000.

One must finally be convinced; in our latitudes, there is no longer and cannot exist any remnant of virgin nature. Would it even be the case in an integral reserve of a few hectares? In a French national park or in a protected area, the path of the animals one would wish to be wild always crosses at some point that of humans. For better or for worse, as evidenced by the fate of a colony of griffon vultures... "The Cevennes National Park," Louisette Gouverne, Nathalie Locoste, Actes Sud Edition

• The Cevennes National Park
• Arts and Architecture in the Cevennes
• The Land of the Camisards
• The History of the Cevennes
• Journey to the Heart of the Cevennes
• With Stevenson Through the Cevennes
• The Cevennes by Train with the Cévenol
• Lozère, the Land of Hiking
• Cevennes and Causses
• Stays and Hikes
• Loop Hikes
• Bicycle Routes
• Towns and Villages Nearby

Former holiday hotel with a garden along the Allier, L'Etoile Guest House is located in La Bastide-Puylaurent between Lozere, Ardeche, and the Cevennes in the mountains of Southern France. At the crossroads of GR®7, GR®70 Stevenson Path, GR®72, GR®700 Regordane Way, GR®470 Allier River springs and gorges, GRP® Cevenol, Ardechoise Mountains, Margeride. Numerous loop trails for hiking and one-day biking excursions. Ideal for a relaxing and hiking getaway.

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