Carnoulès – la croix de gattigues

This hiking trail starts from a spot in Saint-Sebastien d’Aigrefeuille about 9 km from Alès in the lower Cévennes. The starting location is not in the centre of the village, but on a side road near the Amous river at the bottom edge of the Carnoulès lead mine. We start with a pretty stroll upstream along the Amous river, which is flowing with clean water in February. The Amous river, downstream from the starting point flows through the famous Anduze Bamboo park (La Bambouseraie) in Générargues. The Amous then spills into the Gardon river about 2 km from Anduze. We’ll see later why this is of interest… Continue reading

Hiking in south central France

This site is about walking, mostly in south central France. South central France means the Cévennes mountains, 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 Aveyron and the Drôme. There are descriptions of interesting walks. And a focus on technology – namely the hardware and software you might use while hiking. There are also references to cartography both in the field and on the computer screen back home.

Hiking in this region is about observing and understanding the landscapes, villages, farms and ancient ruins and the 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.

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 500 circuits also complete with downloadable gpx. It is worth noting however, that a gpx track is a perishable commodity. Over time waymarkings 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.

Tag: Carnoulès

A Cévennes panorama