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Tourism and Hiking around La Bastide-Puylaurent
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We arrive in the afternoon, some by car and others by train on "le Cevenol". The weather is beautiful and the reunions are always very pleasant. We settle at the guesthouse "L'Etoile", an old vacation hotel from the 1930s on the banks of the Allier River, which separates Ardeche and Lozere. Our organizers take us for a walk in the village of La Bastide-Puylaurent and to Lake Beal which is set up for trout fishing. Their production is also sold freshly caught with a dip net. Our fisherman-guide Popeil gives us a demonstration on baiting the trout by throwing red fruits found on site, and it works...
15.5 km Loop Hike
Departure towards the Abbey of "Notre Dame des Neiges" in the municipality of St Laurent les Bains in Ardeche following the GR®72 (common with the GR®7). Founded by Cistercian Trappists in 1864. Visit of the cellars, meditation, but also tasting of a dry white and a sweet white. A major tourist spot for the Nîmois and Alesiens.
From his stay at Notre-Dame des Neiges, Robert Louis Stevenson recounts: "At this late season, the residents were few. Yet, I was not alone in the public part of the monastery. It is located near the entrance and includes a small dining room on the ground floor and, upstairs, an entire corridor of cells like mine." Our deepening of meditation will take place during an appetizing walk along the ridge of the GR®7 in search of a picnic spot with a breathtaking view of the Borne Valley. Return to La Bastide-Puylaurent via the Serres and Rogleton valleys where we find the old path of Stevenson that runs alongside the Allier.
Tourism on the Water Sharing
We head towards the small village of Puylaurent, which is now just a hamlet of La Bastide-Puylaurent, but where there is a small chapel of great beauty and an unbeatable view of the Goulet and Mont Lozere. On the way, we stop at the dolmen of Thort. It is the "Palet de Gargantua" (Did he follow us from Brittany to Lozere? Or has he stayed in Armor and launched his disk here?) The dolmen of Thort is located 200m from the hamlet towards Prevancheres along the GR®72 and GR®700.
Visit to the Puylaurent dam built on the Chassezac River. The Puylaurent dam is the largest dam built in France at the end of the 20th century. Its construction began in June 1990 and was completed in May 1996 with its filling. The project involved 15 companies under the management of the departmental equipment syndicate of Ardeche and the technical direction of EDF Hydraulic Engineering. 200 people worked for 500,000 hours.
We cross Prevancheres without a glance towards the famous chocolatier's shop which has since moved to Les Vans. A detour is planned to the viewpoint of the Chassezac gorges just next to the small village of Albespeyres. The view is truly breathtaking over the canyon, Pied de Borne, and further away the Alps.
Then we head towards the medieval village of La Garde Guerin. A visit to the fortified village and the tower is planned. A difficult passage to the top but a very beautiful view of Mont Lozere and the Chassezac canyon. In the village, a meeting between two speakers of Occitan and an old local. This old villager was happy to speak in patois. The Auberge de La Regordane, in the center of the village, cannot accommodate us, everything is full!
We will go as far as Villefort following the Via St Gilles or the path of La Regordane. The path of Arverne and Greek merchants. The one for knights, pilgrims, and peddlers. Of jugglers and troubadours. The route of wine, spices, common salt as well as oil and cheese. But also a strategic route for tin towards the Mediterranean. Of Frankish chivalry marching against the Saracens. Still no nap.
We set off again via the D.901 towards Altier, we pass the upper town and the lower town. We stop at the village of Bleymard to admire its small chapel and after crossing Bagnols les Bains, we head towards Mende. A very brief visit to the city, its cathedral, and its old houses and narrow streets.
Then via the N.106 we reach Rieutort de Randon and Châteauneuf de Randon. A town that has a statue of Dugesclin and has become one of the strongholds of Gevaudan, which fell in 1361 to the control of the great companies, one of whose leaders, Seguin de Badifol, a Gascon knight, roamed the country at the head of 3000 plunderers.Twenty years later, in 1380, others seized it. These companies, half English, half Gascon, took advantage of the wars between France and England and had settled in several strongholds of Auvergne and Languedoc. "0 honor and chivalry, you will lose much when this one shall define!"
Departure for Langogne, we admire the Grain Hall built by the Fleury priory in 1742. Fourteen stone pillars support the wooden frame and the slate roof of Tournel. Under this cover was the grain market, and the priory held a cartage right for measuring these grains. We quickly visit the Romanesque church with its Gothic facade from the 15th century.
Langogne venerates "Our Lady of All Power" (and not the black virgin). Visit to the Calquieres spinning mill. Various machines, dating from the beginning of the industrial era, allowed from raw wool to obtain narrow strips, then threads thanks to an enormous machine replacing a hundred spinners and their distaffs.
Then return to La Bastide-Puylaurent via Cheylard l'evêque. At Philippe's at L'Etoile, we feel at ease, we discuss everything freely and frankly, we enjoy the landscape and the calm, settled under the large lime tree in the park by the river, and when the time to leave comes, we promise to return to relive this successful first experience.
A big fellow who also works hard on his websites to promote his concept and share his motivation for another way of living together, working, and developing this adventure he follows like a gold seeker. "I might be a businessman but definitely not a merchant; money will come if the idea is good and rich"...
Thermal Cure in Saint Laurent les Bains in Ardeche
To whet the appetite, a small circuit around and above the village of St Laurent. Visit to the old calling tower used during the medieval period to stay in contact with other villages such as La Garde Guerin or Loubaresse.
Descent to the village and settling at the restaurant to regain strength for our afternoon cure. The spa guests are dressed, wearing a swimsuit, bathrobe, cap, towel, slippers, and on their way for 10 minutes in the vaporarium, in thick fog and stifling temperature, they will all endure. They don't know what awaits them around the corners of the corridors.The next step is a bath, but in what liquid (barely liquid). A bit of spring water, I suppose, mixed with a lot of kaolin (natural mix). Imagine a pool filled with milk with a lot of thick cream added, with immense density, making it impossible to stand, in total weightlessness. Moreover, this liquid was very sticky; despite a shower and a lot of elbow grease, I retained white marks for three days. The last step is more pleasant. A pool with spring water. Personal placement with adjustable water jet allowing a massage from feet to head and turning around facing forward or backward. During this stay at the spa, if our bodies suffered, I can tell you that our spirits were uplifted. This experience was not sad.
Around the large host table at L'Etoile, our group has decided to explore Upper Ardeche for our first day. In the morning, we leave La Bastide-Puylaurent for Luc and Langogne following the Allier, then Pradelles in Haute-Loire. We stop at Lake Issarles and head towards Le Beage.
After crossing the Bonnefoy forest, we arrive at the foot of the Gerbier de Jonc and next to the sources of the Loire. It is on the western slope of this dome, a conical lava formation at 1551 meters above sea level, that the sources of the Loire are located.We don't have time to admire the landscape, the group is already on the move towards the summit; the view is magnificent at the top. Just as I catch my breath, the group is already coming back down.At the bottom, some buy jams, others honey, while the rest approach the monument of the sources, attracted by an ad for Sancerre wines irrigated by the Loire.
After a picnic attempt at the Mezenc pass, we give up. The place was too windy for our paper plates and plastic cups. We descend to the sheltered slope and much lower down, our friend Bitas finds us a glade surrounded by conifers. A ritual unpacking is done by all; the supplies, tables, chairs, and food are brought to the working site, not forgetting the little pear.
The afternoon is devoted to the Mezenc at 1753 m. We climb to the summits (there are two). With the orientation tables, we were not lost, though the horizon was somewhat obscured. Some, in the clouds, swore they had glimpsed Mont Blanc. However, the Dune du Pilat was not visible. But the Mont Pilat at 1432 m, located between the Rhône Valley and that of the Loire, could have been.
We set off back to the lodge, with a stop at the Recoumene viaduct. This masterpiece was constructed during the heroic era of the early railway by the resident engineer. No trace of the track remains, no trains pass, perhaps out of respect for this work, the bridge has been preserved (I believe more for economic reasons). Nonetheless, it has been repurposed by a bungee jumping association and thus has become a bit of a tourist attraction.
The summits of Lozere
We set off taking the D.6 towards Masmedjean. We cross Chasserades, Mirandol, l'Estampe, the mountain of Goulet, and arrive at the small village of Bleymard. Food supplies are diligently gathered while some visit this village located at the foot of Mont Lozere. Bleymard had 434 inhabitants. The village is at the crossroads of two roads; on one hand, the road from Mende to Villefort following the Lot and the Altier; on the other hand, the D.20 coming from Belvezet, climbing and descending the slope of Goulet, and barely crossing the village, heading towards Mont-Lozere, towards Finiels and the Pont de Montvert. Via this D.20, we ascend to the Bleymard ski station where three hotels are located.
It's snack time; during our meal, we have an unobstructed view of the Valley and the mountains of the Cevennes. Without a nap and without rest, the group heads towards the Finiels pass. On this trail, the path is lined with standing stones, similar to menhirs.
In foggy weather, these stones served as landmarks for shepherds descending from the mountain with their flocks in autumn. Only a portion of our group will reach the summit of Finiels at 1699 m, due to several dropouts along the way. It's time for our efforts to cease. The bold shapes of the chapel on Mont Lozere, built in 1967 by the scouts of France, surprised us. This roof shape is designed to allow snow to slide to the ground without risk of accidents.
In these regions, the evolution of vegetation largely reflects the history of pastoralism and, conversely, the presence of forests. Thus, the beech and fir forests that populated Mont Lozere during the Gallo-Roman era were gradually destroyed by livestock. However, since the early 20th century, heather, pines, and birches have begun to reconquer neglected pastures. The ONF (National Forestry Office) also promotes the planting of beeches and firs. Wild boars, deer, and roe deer have colonized these forests.
La Bastide-Puylaurent (province of Gevaudan).
In the 18th century, La Bastide Puylaurent was just a hamlet of a few houses that lined the Regordane Path (this is how it is referred to in ancient documents; the improper designation of Voie Regordane - to sound Roman - only appears in the 20th century). It takes its name from the region of Regordane that it crosses, just as the Chemin de Forez takes its name from the surrounding mountains. This region, and even this province, provincia de Regordana in 1323 in a document of the Chateau of Portes, would roughly correspond to the territory extending between the towns of Ales, Chamborigaud, Genolhac, Villefort, La Garde-Guerin, Prevancheres, La Bastide, Luc, Langogne, Pradelles, and Largentieres.There were a few inns, an active mule relay in the 17th and 18th centuries, where travelers and pilgrims found refuge and where, during heavy snowfalls, they sometimes found themselves trapped for several weeks. It was not until 1741 that a first church was built on the site of which, a century later, the current building was erected.
Here the railway line coming from Mende, Allenc, Belvezet, Chasserades joins the one from Paris to Marseille via Clermont-Ferrand and Nîmes with the "Cevenol". Unfortunately for it, the Nîmes-Clermont-Ferrand line hardly benefits from the promotional leniency of the SNCF like the TGV. Yet it allows the inhabitants of Nîmes and Montpellier, fans of peaceful hiking, to make round trips in a day for magnificent excursions up to more than 1,000 m in altitude.
La Bastide-Puylaurent (La Bastide St-Laurent-les-Bains), at 1024 meters above sea level, is a stone's throw from the triple water divide of the basins of the Loire, the Rhône, and the Garonne, represented by the Allier, Chassezac, and Lot, which rise on the neighboring high plateaus. At over a thousand meters in altitude, it is a good vacation spot for summer away from the heatwave.
The Trappist Abbey of Notre Dame des Neiges, a few kilometers to the east, attracts many visitors, some coming for the peace of this Cistercian cloister, others for the enchanting setting of this peaceful valley. The Trappists have proven to be excellent winemakers, and many came here to procure quality wines, harvested in the plains of Gard and Ardeche. It was at Notre Dame des Neiges that Charles de Foucauld, hermit from Tamanrasset, stayed, who entered the abbey as a novice in 1890, before departing for the Sahara.
Robert Louis Stevenson also stopped at the abbey.
"Meticulously, the day is divided between various occupations. The man who cares for the rabbits, for example, hurries from his hutch to the chapel, to the chapter house or to the refectory all day long. At any hour, he has an office to sing, a task to fulfill. From the moment he rises in the dark at two o'clock until eight o'clock when he returns to receive the comforting gift of sleep, he remains standing, absorbed by multiple and changing tasks." Stevenson
The thermal waters of St Laurent les Bains have been renowned for centuries. People went there to take the waters since the 18th century, despite the difficulty of the paths (GR®72 linking Mont Lozere to the Col du Bez, passing through Villefort, Prevancheres, Thort, La Bastide-Puylaurent, and the Notre Dame des Neiges abbey). The station enjoyed a time, in the 19th century, the vogue of thermal waters. The construction of the Paris-Nîmes railway and the proximity of the train stations of La Bastide-Puylaurent and Langogne allowed it to welcome spa guests from the major cities of southern France such as Marseille, Nîmes, Montpellier, Clermont-Ferrand, or Lyon. However, in the 1960s, it had to close due to a lack of clients. In 1987, the thermal chain of the sun refurbished the entire station. At that time, it was mainly thought to treat skin diseases due to the sulfurous properties of these waters. The recent advertising for this station only mentions the treatment of rheumatism and sciatica.
The Chassezac, born at Moure de la Gardille, flows into the Ardeche after a course of 80 km; it waters the meadows of Belvezet, passes under the significant viaduct of Mirandol and immediately plunges 25 to 30 meters into a narrow cleft between two granite walls. Then its bed widens and it falls in cascades under the hamlet of Mas, south of Chasserades. Between Puylaurent and L'Hermet, it narrows its banks again and plunges 95 m deep. Then it flows peacefully for 5 or 6 km between green meadows, under ash trees and poplars. After following the train station of Prevancheres, it spreads into a superb lake, the lake of Rachas, where a dam holds it back.
Then the untamed river engages in its grand canyon, impossible to follow after Albespeyres. But a viewpoint of the Chassezac gorges has been set up at the edge of the old D.906 which connects Ales to Langogne. In nice weather, the spectacle is truly grand: upstream, two waterfalls; then the waters wind around a massive pile of granite, infiltrate into a narrow neck, and plunge into the "devil's cauldron": the rock descends sheer on both sides for 300 m. Then it flows, forming a Z, on a narrow path that it has carved into the hard rock. It is there between two towers: that of La Garde Guerin and that of Roure.
The medieval village of La Garde-Guerin
This beautiful watchtower, once surrounded by ramparts of which only ruins remain, stands tall. In the "Etymological Dictionary of Place Names in France," we can read that the word Garde comes from the Germanic Wart and means guard, watchtower, fortress.Castle and village, partly restored, form a beautiful medieval ensemble. It was the domain of the "Paries," a very original association of knights and noblemen, a police militia that protected and guided travelers on the Voie Regordane or St Gilles Path.
This path became, in the Middle Ages, after the division of the Carolingian Empire, which placed the Rhône Valley in the German Empire and made the Voie Regordane the most eastern route of the Kingdom.About thirty lived on La Garde-Guerin, with meticulous and precise statutes regulating the distribution of income and the succession of the pareuries. They depended on the Barons (the Guerins) of Tournel.
In a text written in the 12th century, in late Latin, one can read: "castrum quod vocatur la Garda," the stronghold called La Garde. It is not known exactly when the name of Guerin was added to La Garde. It is generally thought that the lords who settled at La Garde around the 12th century were Guerins, a surname common to the three baronies of Randon, Apcher, and Tournel. Bishop Aldebert III of Tournel made an expedition against them and besieged their lair; from gendarmes, they had become thieves and robbed those they should have protected. They submitted and returned to the right path. Their brotherhood lasted until the French Revolution.
The railway routes at La Bastide-Puylaurent
The construction of the Mende > La Bastide Puylaurent section generated many problems. After deciding to bore a tunnel of 2124 m under the mountain of Goulet, work stopped after a third of the route. The current route through Allenc, Belvezet, and Chasserades was chosen, with a climb of 1215 m near Belvezet. To protect this route from snow, costly snow barriers had to be installed, followed by covered galleries, and it's far from a fast route! The other line, that of the Cevennes, which connects Nîmes to Clermont-Ferrand via Ales and Langogne, is quite hilly and rises, between Ales and La Bastide-Puylaurent, from 897 m over 66 km. It is one of the three steepest gradients in Europe.
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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