Les Fumades – la croix de gattigues

This hike loops around several hamlets in the municipality of Allègre-les-Fumades. Les Fumades was a popular spa in the 19th century, drawing visitors from as far away as the UK and Germany due to the reputation of it’s mineral waters. Wartime (especially the 1914-1918 world war) and economic changes have taken their toll and, although still a spa, the town is not as popular as it once was. Apart from the spa, the town retains several points of historical and photographical interest.

A photographic tour

Auzon

The hamlet of Auzon sits on the north side of the Auzonnet. In a short stroll around the hamlet you can visit the quaint rue de la Chambrette, an interesting stone cross and various other curiosities inlcuding an old well.

vieux puits; Auzon — vieux puits : Auzon

La Bégude and Arlende

In the spring, the old mill and mill canal in La Begude are very picturesque. Arlende, a bit further up the trail has an old (but heavily restored) windmill.

Les Fumades

In Les Fumades, the Kronprinz’s villa catches our attention. The house, looking more like it should be on an alpine lakeshore or on the French Riviera was apparently built for the crown prince of Germany in the years around 1912, in the expectation (or the hope) that the son of the German emperor would “take the waters” in Les Fumades. Thanks to the breakout of war in 1914, the Kronprinz never came…

On this circuit, in May, we saw very few orchids until coming upon a disused meadow in les Vieilles Fumades where around 50 wild orchids were flowering inlcuding the orchis purpurea.

A botanical tour

passerelle sur l'Auzonnet — footbridge on the Auzonnet

In the Gard, violent autumn rainstorms can produce sudden flash floods in riverbeds that are otherwise dry. The little stream of Séguissous which flows down from the base of the Mont Bouquet massif, is often dry, but when the water flows it spares little in its path. The pictures below show a dry riverbed and an area of significant erosion.

The area around the town of les Fumades is well irrigated by a number of small rivers and there are several alluvial plains. At the same time, some hamlets are built in areas of dry rocky limestone garrigue. As a result the variety of wild flowers, flowering shrubs and trees is remarkable. Below is a small sample.

fleur de l'azerolier — fleur de l’azérolier

murier : dégats du gel tardif — murier : dégâts du gel tardif

Hiking in south central France

This site is about walking, mostly in south central France, specifically the Cévennes “mountain” range, the Grands Causses area with it’s plateaus and canyons, the departments of Gard with the garrigue landscapes, the Vaucluse, the Herault, sometimes the Ardèche, the Avéyron and the Drôme. There are descriptions of interesting walks, but sometimes also the non-interesting ones. There are occasional articles about the hardware and software you might use while hiking and in particular handheld GPS devices and smartphones. There are also references to cartography both in the field and on the computer screen back home. The progress in the area of web mapping in the past several years, with the arrival of services like Google Maps, Nokia Here (now “Here we go”) and the OSM Open source map service, has been spectacular.

However, hiking in this region is more than just walking with eyes focused forward or concentration on the GPS screen. It’s also about observing and understanding the landscapes, villages, farms, ancient ruins and various geological curiosities. Often the subject of interest is not the “what”, but the “why”. Why did people settle here hundreds of years ago? Why did the ancient trade routes pass this spot?

In this region, traces of human activity are everywhere – in the still occupied villages and farms, but also in the undergrowth, on the riverbanks and and on the abandoned hillsides. This site aims to explore these subjects, traveling on foot, at about 3.5 km per hour.

This site is also for people who like maps. There are maps in nearly every article, often with interactive features. Try them out.

For every walk mentioned in an article, the site provides a downloadable gpx file suitable for use on a handheld gps device. The site provides additional access to a database of some 700 circuits also complete with downloadable gpx. It is worth noting however, that a gpx track is a perishable commodity. Over time waymakings change, land owners block walking routes, obstacles appear. For this reason, when available, dates of the most recent passage on the circuits are also provided. Use with care.

Everywhere you go on these hiking routes you are likely to see a field cross. They can be in iron, stone, or wood and can be simple or ornate. These field crosses are supposed to have protected travellers from bandits – as supposedly no bandit would dare attack near a symbol of the all powerful religion.

So the french word “croix” translates to cross and holds the connotation of the cross as a religious symbol. However, in the context of this site, cross means crossroad or intersection. “La Croix de Gattigues” refers to a crossroad in a hamlet in the Gard department at which, no surprise, there is also a fine an iron cross.

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