On the Cévennes trail
After having walked for ten years on various paths in the Cévennes, from St-Jean-du-Gard to Causse Méjean, passing through Mont Lozère, we journeyed last year to the sources of the Loire. In doing so, we had somewhat overlooked the entire region located between La Bastide-Puylaurent, Valgorge, Les Vans, and Génolhac, which corresponds exactly to the beautiful route of the GRP Le Cévenol. We therefore decided to book our accommodations along this exciting way.
La Bastide-Puylaurent (1,024 m). 5 PM. A very warm welcome from Philippe Papadimitriou at L'Etoile Guest House. A truly hearty meal—everything a dedicated hiker needs for the road ahead!
Departure at 8 AM. The weather is a bit uncertain, but there is no rain for now. We follow a quiet forest path and then a small country road without much elevation until we finally reach the famous Abbey of Notre-Dame-des-Neiges (1,081 m). We spot a few monks bustling around the farm. The abbey is undeniably magnificent in its lush green setting.
Saint-Laurent-les-Bains (820 m). We access the village from the heights; we only discover it about 500 meters before arriving, deeply nestled at the bottom of a valley between two mountains that seem to crush it with their imposing mass. It is a lovely village where old stones and more recent buildings, including the renowned thermal establishment, blend together pleasantly.
Just one kilometer after St-Laurent, we experience our first uncertainties about the itinerary due to a sign lying on the ground and a severe lack of markings. I believe this is due to the recent widening of the path to facilitate access for heavy wood extraction machines. However, the little pass we reach offers a breathtaking panorama of wild massifs with incredibly steep slopes.
We begin our descent towards Conches (800 m). This ruined, ancient hamlet once proudly housed several families. About 300 meters away, we discover an old farmhouse, completely lacking road access, yet currently undergoing an impressive renovation! It can only be accessed by a rugged mule path. Building materials are brought there via a spectacular zip line stretched high above the valley a bit further on, after a long, jarring journey by 4x4, then pushed by wheelbarrow... What a massive undertaking! But the place is absolutely stunning!
The valley above which the zip line heavily passes is watered by a clear, pristine stream that simply invites swimming: right under the old bridge, there is a fairly large and deep natural pool in which we would have loved to dive, but the heavy rain seriously threatened, so we continued on our way. Shortly after, we met four lovely Belgian hikers, in their fifties, vibrant and constantly smiling.
Le Mas de Truc. An old, beautifully renovated village where one house features a traditional "storm bell tower" complete with its magnificent bell. We then carefully take the path leading to the pass of Toutes Aures (1,199 m). The trail here is no longer very well marked and is sometimes heavily overgrown with vegetation, forcing us to carefully pass through the open meadows.
Loubaresse (1,230 m). A high-perched, quiet village where you can find a welcoming cafe, a fine restaurant, guest rooms, and a highly charming grocery store. We ate around 1 PM exactly in the entrance hall of the local church, perfectly in the bright sun, nicely sheltered from the biting wind. Leaving Loubaresse, we catch a fleeting glimpse of Valgorge far at the bottom of the deep valley. Unfortunately, upon arriving at a DFCI (forestry) road, we completely miss the turnoff for our GR and set off by mistake on the GRP Tour du Tanargue! We only find the "Cévenol" again 5 km later, right on the crest of Sapet, where we weren’t supposed to pass until tomorrow! We thus take the long, winding descent towards Valgorge that we will have to repeat tomorrow, in the opposite direction. The stage is long, but undeniably beautiful.
Valgorge (570 m). A beautiful, historic village. We lodge at the communal gîte where absolute trust reigns: the manager simply left the door wide open, and the key is sitting quietly on the table! We have reserved our dinner at the local restaurant "Tanargue." We are a bit surprised by the very stylish, formal welcome from the owner and waiters, all dressed elegantly in ties, while we stand there in hiking shorts and flip-flops... But everything goes extremely well; the meal is excellent, very refined, and offered at a relatively moderate price.
Departure from Valgorge at 9 AM for a stage we deeply hope will be significantly shorter than yesterday's. We slowly go back up the steep slope we descended yesterday after our frustrating route error. We feel fresh; it genuinely seems less difficult than we feared. We do, however, climb continuously for nearly two hours. The crest stands proudly at 1,010 meters; the resulting panorama is incredibly beautiful. Down below, we can see the village of Dompnac to the right and the small chapel of St-Régis (700 m), where we will be in about an hour, sitting directly opposite us. At the quiet chapel, we stop for a small, regenerating snack and spot a couple of sporty Luxembourg hikers in their fifties confidently heading out on the Lauzes trail, which our GR follows for a few kilometers; we will undoubtedly meet them later...
Ready to finally leave, we see a lively group of volunteer sixty-year-olds who, too, are walking on the beautiful Lauzes trail. But since not everyone is highly sporty and they know the challenging country well (they are locals), they decided to easily reach St-Mélany by cutting directly through the DFCI road. This will unfortunately lead us to great confusion, especially since a couple from the Pyrenees, quietly picnicking at the cross of Grimal, unknowingly hid the crucial turnoff markings for our GR. We blindly walk 500 meters before finally realizing our clear mistake... Turnaround! The Pyrenees folks are visibly dismayed! Still, we do not regret returning on our steps; the Lauzes trail is absolutely superb: it features old, majestic chestnut groves, traditional calades (cobbled paths), pretty dry stone walls, terraced vineyards, and ancient farms... We pass very close to private houses, almost walking through people's yards, but they accept these brief intrusions with a warm, friendly smile. The winding path is regularly adorned with highly original artistic works, crafted in stone or wood, which are very interesting and integrate seamlessly into the rocky landscape.
At Travers (600 m), right near the gîte, we go straight ahead instead of taking a small, hidden path to the left. We thus arrive on a small road where we find the Luxembourg couple who, in fact, had already done this exact hike last year! The gentleman is deeply determined to quickly find the trail and strongly motivates us, despite the crushing midday heat, to carefully retrace our steps. Here we are, finally back on the right path. The valley is truly magnificent. In a very shady spot near a cold stream, we gladly stop to picnic.
When we finally arrive at Saint-Mélany (465 m), we are highly surprised to find our Luxembourg hiking couple comfortably sitting at the terrace of a "Café de Pays," which also serves as a small restaurant and local grocery store. They had eaten there, the waitress is incredibly charming, and we gladly stop to have a cold lemonade with them. At the historic bridge of Brousse, we cannot resist the strong call of the bath; it must be said that the natural pool that stretches beautifully under the old arches is extremely tempting: the water is lively, crystal clear, and quite deep... The smooth, flat rocks bordering it allow bathers to quickly dry in the hot sun and provide a perfect spot for children to jump or dive. An absolute treat!
We emerge in phenomenal shape, our tired legs feeling light again, fully ready to face the long 5 km ascent to the pass of Croix de Fer via a rugged, old cobbled mule path. It is very hot, but fortunately, the path is very shady and so beautiful!
At the Col de la Croix de Fer (818 m), we take the small road to reach L'Auberge de La Peyre (860 m), which also offers cozy guest rooms. The welcome is friendly, the meal is simple but very good, and the products are strictly local and of excellent quality: delicious homemade charcuterie, the owner's fabulous mushroom omelet, and the host's mother's succulent apricot tart.
Departure from our third stage around 9 AM, it is already quite warm. The trail down to Dépoudent (650 m) is highly shady and wildly beautiful, still an old traditional mule path exactly as we like, even if natural erosion and local wild boars do everything they can to destroy them over time. Dépoudent is a very pretty, isolated hamlet with only a few farms; it has remained perfectly authentic, and you can still easily feel the spirit of the old hardworking Cévenol farmers.
In Saint-Jean-de-Pourcharesse (600 m), we openly admire the beautiful bell tower with clear openings, a classic "bell-peigne," and some beautiful ancient houses before slowly descending into a vast, old chestnut grove. At Aliziès, we are incredibly fortunate to meet the very last farmer of the hamlet who kindly pointed us to the very cool fountain where we could completely fill our already empty water bottles, while he had placed his own beers and fruit juices there to naturally cool them before noon. One of the friendly villagers warmly invites us to visit his spacious, renovated house: large beautifully tiled rooms, wide passages with large stone arches between the halls looking just like a minor manor, and finally, the stunning terrace covered by a roof dominating the valley where he offered us a cold drink. We deeply appreciated it, but time was ticking, and we had to leave... We picnicked on an old shady bridge where a fast group of mountain bikers, having just sped down the nearby steep slope, approached us completely without warning: truly impressive!
At Champmajour (240 m), we went to specifically see the fountain at the bottom of the village: a beautiful, quiet place with its heavy stone vault under a green terraced garden. Chambonas (160 m). Too much road here, too many fast cars! The narrow passage over the bridge towards Les Vans is actually quite amusing: it is very long, with only one single lane, and there are two or three small stone refuges that allow pedestrians to escape the risk of collision with a vehicle; we must carefully calculate our crossing based on the speed of the cars and ours perfectly between two refuges.
Les Vans (179 m). A busy, popular tourist town; the streets in the historic heart are very pretty, but there are almost too many people! Many restaurants are already completely full at 6 PM. We finally eat at "La Feuille de Chou," a charming place a little away from the old town; the food is very good, and the prices are quite reasonable. We sleep peacefully at the Hotel des Oliviers, where we received a very warm welcome, and the staff is genuinely pleasant. Unfortunately, right in the middle of the night, exactly at 2 AM, a group of young people irresponsibly started smoking in their room, immediately triggering the general fire alarm, complete with 5 long minutes of piercing siren...! And it wasn't over, as the young people, having been heavily scolded by the hotel manager, thought they were extremely clever by smoking again, but this time, right at the open window... A sudden draft must have blown the smoke directly back into the room, and the loud alarm went off again! They very nearly spent the rest of the night under the stars!
Departure at 9 AM. Since there was a heavy thunderstorm during the night, there is thick mist slowly rising from the warm ground. To access the ancient village of Naves, the slope is very steep but incredibly beautiful: a perfect calade in pristine condition. The houses are beautiful, sometimes connected directly by suspended stairs right under the old stone arches that it is highly pleasant to walk under. We then take a steep, rocky path, functioning like a balcony highly above the deep valley of Bourdaric, which looks very beautiful, but there is still mist!...
We then cross a lovely, dense chestnut grove before arriving at Alauzas (490 m). We closely follow a fairly easy DFCI path to reach Brahic (508 m). And there, our GRP suddenly disappears! ... No more markers whatsoever! Fortunately, strictly thanks to the "Road Book," we understand that a small hiking path, simply marked in yellow, goes essentially in the right direction. How far? We will eventually see, it’s already a very good help... From time to time, we find a yellow and red marker that hasn’t been completely erased.
At Murjas, even the wooden direction signs have been severely amputated (cut off) from the GRP markers! We descend deeply towards the torrent via an old cobbled path that is very steep and in very poor condition. With the highly humid weather, it’s a bit dangerous. The place is incredibly beautiful; one could have easily swum there, but it is a bit cool. The exhausting climb back up through an old chestnut grove on a very steep slope seems endless on this sunny slope, where the ambient temperature has suddenly risen by at least ten degrees!
We picnic near Malbosquet (430 m). The unexpected storm heavily surprises us there; we quickly put on our raincoats and set off for a new, very long ascent right in an old chestnut grove. We finally find our lost GRP a little after Escoussous near Malbosc. The high ridge path (660 m) in the forest seems very long to us; there is no sweeping viewpoint or very few! The steady ascent is still quite long. Just 1 km from Col de Peras, we truly think we will find the GR®44A, which descends directly towards Château du Cheylard and would bring us much closer to our evening gîte, but after 500 meters, it gets totally lost in the dense forest... we inevitably turn back! The dark storm thunders heavily again; it approaches rapidly, and we take out our raincoats.
At Col de Peras (771 m). The GR seems to be in very poor condition; there are many loose stones made incredibly slippery by the rain, so we wisely decide to descend carefully via the main road towards Aujac (520 m).
A little before the village, we head towards Château du Chaylard, then we descend deeply to Aujaguet, and finally to La Baraque (330 m). We reach our welcoming gîte around 7 PM. The welcome is incredibly warm; Lise-Anne, the Quebec partner of Jonas Nivon, our host, graciously shows us our apartments: everything is highly charming and well thought out; it’s truly a beautiful gîte. She is genuinely concerned about our fatigue, kindly offers us herbal tea, chats freely, and laughs a lot, establishing a strong, friendly connection right away. La Baraque is an eco-gîte; they have a large organic vegetable garden and a very small farm that provides much of the wholesome food they serve us for dinner. Everything is absolutely delicious; the "chocolate-almond-hazelnut-caramel" tart is a pure delight, making us easily forget our deep fatigue, and we enjoy lingering at the table while eating one last piece of tart with one last herbal tea.
We slowly leave La Baraque around 10 AM, as the stage is not very long to the high gîte of Tourèves, perched on the slopes of Mont Lozère, near Génolhac. We smoothly take the path we successfully ended on yesterday; it seems much more beautiful without the crushing fatigue of the evening.
We quickly reach Aujac (520 m) and confidently descend towards the Souillas bridge, a truly beautiful spot for swimming, we’ve been told. There is bright sun; we quickly decide to stay there for a while perfectly after the swim and happily eat our picnic. We set off at exactly 1:30 PM on a steep, challenging climb towards Charnavas-le-Haut (480 m). The beautiful village we will only clearly see from a distance as we turn sharply at the very first house towards a green pass before deeply descending into a quiet valley where we find the absolute smallest bridge of our entire journey; it has absolutely everything of the large one (stone arch, heavy parapets...) but completely in miniature.
Upon our highly anticipated arrival in Génolhac (540 m), the air is very heavy; we stop at a cafe to simply drink a cold lemonade, then we actively discuss with the Tourist Office about the severe marking issues and sometimes complete lack of maintenance of the GRP "Le Cévenol." We linger a bit because it’s genuinely nice to be walking in the old alleys. We finally start the long ascent towards the high gîte after 4 PM via the old historic Génolhac-Villefort road.
The sudden storm surprises us directly at the foot of the slope; it rains heavily during the entire three-kilometer ascent to Col de Bergeronnette exactly at 500 m from Tourèves (800 m), a truly magnificent balcony hovering perfectly over the deep Génolhac valley. Just when we arrive, a beautiful ray of sunshine forcefully pierces the dark clouds and magically creates a highly bright rainbow directly above the town; it’s absolutely splendid!
The warm meal begins with an excellent homemade aperitif "la cartagène," beautifully accompanied by delicious herb olives. The rustic pâté from the nearby Chamborigaud butcher is an absolute treat... The evening meal is even more enjoyable as we happily share it with a lovely family of highly enthusiastic Parisian hikers.
Departure from Tourèves at 9 AM precisely to comfortably arrive in Villefort before the expected heavy storm around 1 PM. The beautiful forest path, neatly terraced highly above the valley, sometimes beautifully reveals sweeping panoramas. We can even clearly see the distant Mont Ventoux, which Jacques Lemaire, our excellent host in Tourèves, had already proudly pointed out to us in the early morning mist. Exactly at the col du Marquet, there is a highly scenic viewpoint as we pass closely behind the incredibly large rock that lines the road.
At the quiet col de Rabusat (1,099 m), we happily stop for a small, well-deserved snack. A dynamic young couple comes walking from the direction of Mas de la Barque right on Mont Lozère; they have successfully picked fresh chanterelles along the way and excitedly plan to perfectly cook them for lunch. They leave just ahead of us. We then faithfully follow a beautiful ridge line through thick gorse with a tiny bit of rock climbing to perfectly spice up the route. On the rocky descent, we surprisingly find their lost bag of mushrooms right on the green grass of the path. They are definitely not very far; I run quickly to faithfully return it to them. Shortly after, we meet a lovely German hiker who is very soon seventy years old, yet still incredibly alert and deeply enthusiastic; she kindly offers her camera for a nice photo of her with Villefort majestically in the background, very far away in the deep valley.
Then we securely take a very long path that easily leads us directly to Villefort (591 m). It is exactly 12:40 PM; it slowly starts to rain, and we wisely decide to comfortably eat indoors at the very first nice restaurant that presents itself: "La Brindille"; the hot daily menu is very good and truly not too expensive. We deeply appreciate our choice to eat warmly indoors as the cold rain heavily intensifies outside. The picnic safely stays in our bag; it will definitely still be highly good tomorrow!
When we finally go out around 2 PM, it is absolutely still raining.
We stop at the local press house to simply buy some interesting reading material and nice postcards, exactly something to keep us pleasantly occupied at Hotel du Lac (615 m). At 5 PM, the warm sun finally manages to break brightly through the heavy clouds; we take a very calm walk smoothly along the lake; it is nice, but we are genuinely not really into it, as we are already heavily thinking about our crucial stage for tomorrow. In the warm evening, exactly at dinner, we thoroughly enjoy the Bleu d'Auvergne flan as a delicious starter and then the tender veal proudly from Lozère, the "homemade" wild blueberry tart perfectly with its sweet chestnut fondant and fresh raspberry coulis. The local waitresses are incredibly charming.
We completely leave the cozy hotel a little before 9 AM; it is nicely cool, the absolutely perfect temperature to properly begin the long ascent towards La Garde-Guérin strictly on the GR®700 "the Régordane way." The old stone calade is, at several times, still in very good, workable condition. You can definitely see that we are extremely close to Mont Lozère because the heavy stones are remarkably round and quite large; it is solid granite, highly unlike the flat calades exactly at the beginning of our long tour, where the dark stones were clearly schistose, very flat, and thin, meticulously placed vertically tightly against each other. The path rises extremely well; we possess a truly beautiful, commanding view over the large lake directly onto Mont Lozère. We can highly clearly see the exact path we quickly descended yesterday right after the col de Rabusat.
We very soon arrive at a wide plateau. We clearly see La Garde-Guérin (874 m). It is not yet ten o'clock; we take the good time for a very small, quiet visit to this perfectly preserved medieval village (12th-15th century). I bravely climb to the very top of the tower; it’s quite heavily athletic: you access the high summit strictly through a very narrow stone tunnel about 90 cm wide and only 2 meters high, absolutely no stairs, just holes securely in the wall, and a single metal bar to physically hoist yourself securely onto the platform at the very top. The resulting panorama is absolutely superb: the deep gorges of Chassezac widely to the East, Mont Lozère to the vast West. We leave the historic village by a very pretty, shady path, quietly passing in front of an ancient wash fountain and safely reaching a prominent belvedere, once again majestically overlooking the dizzying gorges of Chassezac.
We then happily follow a pristine golf course, and the path winds beautifully through the green meadows before comfortably arriving at Albespeyres (870 m). We are heavily more focused on admiring the very old, rustic farms and the incredibly large, beautiful vegetable garden than strictly on the GR markers; we stupidly miss the sharp descent to Chassezac, normally passing right under the railway. We continue blindly on the road; we ultimately catch up with the GR just before Prévenchères by effectively crossing the huge dam that heavily holds back the deep waters of Chassezac. We meet an incredibly old, wise hiker actually living deeply in Albespeyres; we openly tell him about our small mishap, and he clearly explains that we definitely couldn’t see the crucial turn-off markers for the GR because there was a (white) car heavily parked exactly in front! That instantly reminds us of something very similar! ... (the happy hikers quietly picnicking completely near a cross).
After La Molette (1,006 m). We steadily gain high altitude again (1,133 m) while quietly following vast, sweeping meadows where peaceful cows graze freely. After Le Thort, we take a quiet, dark path smoothly alongside a nice mushroom wood, then we securely arrive at a very old heavily tarred road, half-eaten by the encroaching green vegetation. It probably perfectly serves as a standard hiking path now. We once again totally miss a crucial turnoff to the direct left to safely reach La Bastide-Puylaurent simply via a highly scenic small road...
Upon our highly anticipated arrival at L'Etoile, safely at La Bastide-Puylaurent (1,024 m), Philippe Papadimitriou generously offers us hot tea; all is remarkably well that definitely ends extremely well...
This specific hike is most certainly one of the absolutely most beautiful we have ever bravely done, walking highly from crest to crest, passing through deeply enclosed, quiet valleys, crossing fast, pristine streams where we happily enjoyed swimming, generously offering us truly breathtaking, majestic panoramas flawlessly carved from deep schist and solid granite, and then there is this incredibly magnificent ancient habitat that clings desperately to the steep slopes, somewhat completely tamed by endless kilometers of incredibly sturdy terraces built strictly by hand, firmly stone by stone... What an incredibly beautiful, striking country!
Eric Dubois
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