Cévennes

After breakfast at the hotel we packed up and went to the office du tourisme. The woman there was helpful and assisted us in making reservations for the next two nights.

After purchasing a few things at the alimentation and bread at the boulangerie, at 10:15 a.m. we headed out of town in the opposite direction from our arrival. We passed over the bridge at the north end of town and followed a busy main road to the Village de Vacances where we crossed over an old bridge by a grassy campground next to the river. The Tour du Mont Losère (GR 43, GR 44 and GR 68) followed an ascending road through the town and up a forested hill. We saw two large escargot mating on the road, solving that riddle. As the trail climbed it left the woods and we had views of the river valley and the cliffs of the Causse Méjean beyond. The trail then curved to the right and we had a view of a grass slope and an unusual manor house with two gables and a round tower in the middle. We continued to climb straight up and then descended a little to an unusual outcropping of gray stone. Near this was a large menhir or tall vertical granite stone about ten feet high. The menhirs are ancient and their purpose is not well understood.

The trail descended - we always hated to lose altitude - by fields of daisies and other flowers and passed what I thought to be old mulberry trees (mulberry trees were used to feed silk worms, silk being an important industry of the region in earlier times). Then the trail climbed again steeply past a renovated house and through piney woods it turned right facing red sandstone cliffs. It followed the line of the cliffs and broke out on a grassy high field overlooking the river valley at some distance. There was a old pine with a little shade 30 yards off the road with soft grass beneath it and we settled in for a delicious and comfortable picnic. We looked away from the river valley at the Can Noire called Echine d'Aze or donkey's backbone and a pointed hill beyond (which was one of two thought by legend to be where a giant hit his sandals together and knocked off two piles of dirt).

As we started out again, the trail descended quite steeply to a mas called les Combettes with views of fields of white cows and wide vistas of the river valley. We passed over a stream and decided not to pump because of stinging nettles and a steep drop, though we were low on water. However, we soon arrived at les Combettes where we were first greeted by a clear stone tub of water fed by a plastic pipe with spring water. We drank up and replenished water bottles. Les Combettes was one of the most picturesque mases that we has passed and seemed also to be a gîte d'etape. The road made an S curve through the little village and each stone house and barn was more interesting than the last. The main house was decorated with bright blue shutters and there were two buildings with beautiful curved stone walls. As we walked out of it we saw a barn with and immense arch which I thought (wrongly) might have been used for bee hives as the barn was not too deep.

From les Combettes the Tour du Mont Losère turned back to the right and climbed steeply, first through farm land with stone walls on both sides, and then on flat limestone fields that resembled the Western US. There were flowers - spots of yellow and also areas of pink daisy-like flowers with yellow centers. One could determine where the cracks in the surface rock were by where plants grew and often this was in straight lines. There were a few pine trees which had obviously been planted there but also three menhirs, two, three feet from each other, with one perpendicular to them by about 75 yards. I tried to determine their orientation but it remained a mystery. The trail continued climbing for a long long way over this dry stony brown ground but there were vistas behind us to the cliffs of the causse on the other side of the river.

After a long determined climb we came to the top where there were several menhirs as well as one on an opposing hill. One was particularly large had two creases carved into it dividing it into three pieces on one side.

Here the trail began to descend but not fast enough for us as a sudden thunder storm was catching up with us from the south. (I thought my metal framed pack might serve as an excellent lightning rod.) We took the trail between la Fage and Les Laubies which descended across a road and at the edge of a field. With thunder to our right we descended to a grassy stream where a woman was washing some clothes beside her tethered horse. As we approached she saw us and pointed us to some huge rocks that had been positioned for crossing the stream.

After passing the trees by the stream, a driving rain overtook us as we climbed large granite Maine-like rocks. We stopped under a small tree and stone wall to don rain gear and waited a few minutes for the storm to pass. Then we were back to climbing the granite slope. We passed more fields opting for a left on a road a little before the trail to la Fage. The road bisected two gentle slopes of fields and rose turning into la Fage.

La Fage lay beyond a grassy green turn in the road where a gabled stone spring house with an arch anchored the final turn. The road then climbed into the picturesque little town where we were greeted by a small cross and a small building with a bell (used to warn travelers of storms in former times). At about 4:30 p.m., we walked down a from the road and found the Madame who had a pleasant private room with shower and toilet for 59 € including dinner and petit dejuner. Our room looked over a stone wall and stone farm buildings, to the grassy heights and mountains beyond. As we settled in the cat entered our room and got into our bread.

Bon and I walked around the little village and admired the stone work. Large granite stones had been fitted together so perfectly they did not need mortar. We noticed in one building where the side had fallen down that the entire roof was made with stone without wood - the walls were over three feet thick.

The line of stone buildings stretching well over 100 yards in front of our room were for sheep and goats and what the Madame called la grange or the storage of animal feed. There were stone benches and tables and stone arches both small and wide dating back to the 1800s and one to 1789. At the roof line of the barns some stones jutted out to hold the stone lintels which then held the stone roof.

As we read the town history in the little building with the bell in the center of town we heard a woman yelling. After a while we went out to see what the commotion was and it turned out she and her husband were bringing in the cows through a stone arch just behind us.

We canvassed the town in the sunny afternoon looking over the contrasting grassy and treed hills with storm clouds coming in the distance. We had a pleasant meal with three French women but found it difficult to keep up with the French. At the end of the meal the Madame served a tisane, an herbal tea of Calendula and another herb. Bon and I went for a post-prandial walk under the new moon and back to bed about 10:30 p.m.