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Hiking loops around L'Etoile Guesthouse |
  
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4km / 11km / 14km / 15,5km / 16,3km / 19km / 21,5km / 23,2km / 24km / 27km
La Bastide-Puylaurent is a unique village for short, medium or long walks. Only 300 metres from
L'Etoile Guest House, you can find paths that will take you through wonderful scenery, on a 5km loop, or to the other end of France. On each side of the village the landscape is different between the
Ardeche, Lozere, Haute-Loire and the Cevennes National Park.
To the north,towards the plateau of Haute-Loire, the countryside is very rustic: small farms,fields of green lentils around Puy en Velay, grazing animals , Mt Mezenc, extinct volcanoes , lakes , source of the Loire , and the Allier gorge...
To the south, towards the Cevennes and Mt Lozere the nature is wilder, less touched by human activity; old granite houses with slate roofs, honey, cultivated terraces, small hamlets hidden in the countryside, a history of religious wars between catholics and protestants as at Florac, le Pont de Montvert, Genolhac...
To the east, towards the Ardeche, nature surprises you with it's wild side; stunning countryside, idyllic rivers
for bathing , small footpaths passing through chesnut trees , ancient hamlets like Montselgues, Loubaresse or
Thines, the gorges of the Borne and Chassezac , the summits of the Ardeche mountains, the Tanargue Massif....thermal baths at Saint Laurent les Bains, traditional market at Les Vans on Saturday morning, and the abbey Notre Dame des Neiges 3 km from La
Bastide-Puylaurent..
To the west towards Lozere, the land is less abrupt though the altitude is higher, small valleys in which to fish for trout ,like the Allier, the Lot, the Chassezac or the Altier. The roads are wider and the gradients less severe , allowing less strenuous activities than on the Ardeche side. A number of short and medium distance walks can be undertaken with the help of the small train which links La Bastide-Puylaurent to Mende. Lying as it does atop a huge amphitheatre falling down to the Mediterranean, the Lozere is blessed with the first warm rays of the Occitanie sun.
The hiker feels here an intense excitement and serenity as the skies unfold around the summits of Mt Lozere, the Margeride, the Gevaudan , the Aubrac or the Cevennes. There, he finds a softness amid the spring waters of the Gorges of the Tarn and Jonte, in one of the most beautiful European sites that nature has worked. Lozere has a rich diversity with it's natural areas in landscapes carved by the geology. With the limestone of the great Causses of Sauveterre and Mejean man has built farms of exceptional proportions. With the volcanic basalt of the Aubrac, they have built the " burons " to shelter the shepherds and milk the animals, when the wind whistles. The testimonies to our ancestors' buildings are everywhere on this land ; vestiges of gallo-roman , more valued today, as the gothic cathederal in Mende , the Roman churches of the Margeride, the temples of the Cevennes, the simple bread ovens and crosses of the villages , continually , the imprint of man marks the evolution of the Lozere. Visit the fine medieval village of La Garde Guerin above the Chassezac gorge.
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Walking from 2 to 12 days
Chassezac hiking-loop (2 days) Ardechoise Mountains hiking-loop (4 days)
Cevenol hiking-loop (5 days) Margeride hiking-loop (8 days) Allier Gorges hiking-loop (10 days)
Regordane way GR®700 hiking-trail (11 days) Stevenson trail GR®70 footpath (12 days)
Hiking in Ardeche and Gard on the Cevenol Walking along the Allier in Stevenson's GR 70 footsteps Stevenson’s Ghost
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Unforgettable hike in the Cevennes Improvised hike in Gevaudan Hiking and stay at L’Etoile Guest House
Hike between Margeride and Gevaudan A week of hiking in Lozere Hiking between Ardeche, Gard and Lozere
Tourisme et randonnées autour de La Bastide-Puylaurent Randonnée entre Vivarais et Gévaudan Sur le sentier GR de Pays Le Cévenol
Randonnée en famille par le tour du Cévenol Randonnée à pied par les Gorges de l'Allier Revoir encore et toujours les Cévennes
