Oceanic slope of Aigoual

The village of L’Espérou lies on the border of Dourbies and Valleraugue local councils. A draille (track for livestock to migrate to summer pastures with their shepherds) crosses the village. As in many villages in the Gard, the two places of worship – one Catholic, the other Protestant – are opposite each other. The village is located in a varied environment that is suitable for outdoor activities and sports.

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Men and women have fashioned the Estate according to their needs and wishes. At Roquedols, crops used to be irrigated with water from the Pauchètes stream. In fact, the path you have just been walking on may have struck you as narrow and stony. It follows a former béal, or small irrigation channel. Much later, ornamental landscaping was laid out, including this beautiful archway – which is built on the vestiges of the wall of the former Protestant cemetery!

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Felled trees and branches left on the ground in a protected space? That might seem surprising, but at Roquedols Estate, the forest has always been intended to be productive. In the 19th century, Messrs. Breuil, Dayre and Jouve already exploited the woods of Roquedols intensively. Today, tree fellings are planned with the greatest respect for biodiversity. You are in a living forest, whose appearance evolves by human intervention.

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To contemplate these giants, you need to crane your neck and lift your eyes to the skies! The most remarkable is a giant sequoia originally from California. It was introduced at Roquedols for aesthetic reasons and out of a taste for the exotic. The many silver firs growing around it reveal ambitions of a different kind. In about 1840, the Estate’s owners created a tree nursery so as to be able to grow a large variety of species. The nursery was maintained until the 1980s.

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The interior layout of the dovecote with its nesting-boxes has been lost. The set-back roof made it possible for the birds to sun themselves in the winter whilst remaining sheltered from the north wind. At Roquedols, as elsewhere, only the nobility had the right to breed pigeons, which were sought-after not only for their flesh but also for their droppings, used as a powerful fertiliser.

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A former agricultural estate building, the traditional 14th century farm evolved into a castle in the 16th century. Looking at its quadrilateral shape, you will see that the tower on the left looks different from the one on the right. The shape of the porch before the entrance seems unlike the other parts of this monument. Up until the 20th century, the Château underwent several transformations, but Roquedols Estate has always retained its agricultural purpose. Its successive owners have taken possession of the space in different ways: the Dupont de Bossuges family hosted clandestine Protestant gatherings (18th c.); Madame Dol turned the Estate into a charming residence (late 19th to early 20th c.). During the Second World War, the castle was a refuge for the forestry services and a storage place for artworks. Today, it brings happiness to walkers looking for fresh air!

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“It is not a palace. It is a simple castel, a Cévenol castel: the château of a harsh and austere country. Backing onto wooded slopes, it stands in a hollow from where the view extends over the valley downstream.” (Jeannin, 1961). Standing at the top of the dovecote will easily give you a poetical outlook. Roquedols Estate and the forest on Mont Aigoual have inspired many authors. In the 19th century, Fabre d’Olivet invented a troubadour’s chant: in order to recover his castle and marry his betrothed, Ponce de Meyrueis must capture a sword held by terrible brigands. After many incidents, Ponce and Rose are reunited and can live together in love.

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Life was good at Roquedols in the late 19th century! Madame Dol transformed the Estate, embellishing the promenade with a chestnut avenue and formal garden. They might almost make you forget the Estate’s history of agriculture and forestry, except that its buildings – the former farm outbuildings later turned into a sawmill – are such visible reminders of it.

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In Roquedols forest, firs and beeches grow side by side magnificently. Softwood and hardwood, together? Yes, but the combination is not entirely due to chance. This forest is not a wilderness, but a space cultivated to maintain the diversity of species. At Roquedols, you can see conifers such as fir, larch and spruce as well as deciduous trees: beech, maple and ash. Gaps are made in the forest canopy to give the trees all the light that they need to develop.

Throughout the climb, you will see abandoned former crop terraces. A few grapevines have persisted since local wine-growing came to an end. They bear witness to the fact that the slopes around these hamlets and villages were once cultivated and planted with fruit trees and vines. Terraces like these were the only way for the valley's inhabitants to have flat areas with deep soil suitable for growing.

At an altitude of 1,565 m, the climate is harsh: weather conditions are the same as they would be at 2,000 m elsewhere, with only four “frost-free” months a year. Winds of above 60 kph blow on 265 days a year, and the average annual temperature is 4.8°C. Trees do not have enough time to complete their life cycle. Local plant formations are those of the montane zone: subalpine short-grass prairies.

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This remarkable beech is over 200 years old and called chourradou in Occitan, after the sheep that would chourrer (ruminate) and rest under its shady canopy. This kind of tree (large cavity, detached bark and dead wood) is home above all to saproxylic or dead-wood-eating insects and fungi. On another of these old beeches, below the path, you can see a large lichen called lobaria pulmonaria, which needs a lot of water and is highly sensible to atmospheric pollution. It grows very slowly and thus testifies to the ripe old age of this part of the forest.

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This panel shows the legacy of Charles Flahault's experimental work.

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“And who knows whether some generous benefactor will not decide one day that our students should have a hospitable roof at L'Hort de Dieu itself? I can see the little house as if it were already built, receiving much sunlight on the Mediterranean side, with its study room on the ground floor and its large fireplace around which scientific problems are discussed late into the night..” (Charles Flahault, 1904)
The Chalet, which was built the following year, made it possible to establish a botanical garden, a high-altitude vegetable plot and a plant nursery nearby. Despite the forest reconquering the surroundings, some of the plants introduced at the time have survived until today: Pyrenean lily, great masterwort, and others.

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Fabre and Flahault pursued two objectives: studying the way certain forest species adapt to the Cevenol climate and studying plants in their relationship with environmental conditions. Some plant species are better adapted than others to the Cevenol climate. Thus, Mediterranean and Douglas firs do very well, as do almost all the species native to Europe, Asia Minor and the western United States. Species from East Asia and the eastern United States, however, whither away. Through his work, Flahault laid the foundations of phytosociology, the study of how plants arrange themselves into communities as a function of the environmental conditions.

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Sakhalin knotweed, just like Japanese knotweed, is an invasive species. That means it is not in its environment of origin and grows at the expense of other species, alongside roads and on the banks of many rivers. A “test zone” project aiming to limit the species is being studied at L'Hort de Dieu, thus continuing the experimental mission of the arboretum. To stop knotweed from proliferating, ripping-up, rhizome destruction and covering- up with tarpaulins are all being tried.

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The particular nature of this site earned it the name of “God's garden” (Hortus Dei). Since the 16th century, Mont Aigoual has provided botanists with rare species for herbariums and botanical surveys. Some species were also gathered for their medicinal qualities, called “vertus des simples”, a term to be found on a handwritten map of the Cévennes dating from the early 18th century. In 1936, a stele was inaugurated that is dedicated to the memory of the many botanists who contributed to the advancement of the sciences on the L'Hort de Dieu site.

Inaugurated in 1894, this infrastructure is France’s last mountain weather station to be inhabited. Its history is closely linked to the reforestation of Mont Aigoual. It has become a high-performance weather station with an array of modern test instruments, measuring devices for extreme conditions, and a museum/exhibition on meteorology. The 800 sq m exhibition will tell you more about climatology on Mont Aigoual and about meteorology in general.

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L’Hort de Dieu is located at an altitude of 1,300 m and shaped by an extreme climate. This site with its exceptional assets is a favoured study and experimentation zone for botanists. The tree collection is just over 100 years old, and some of the specimens are declining because of old age or else because they are not well-adapted to this mountain range. Today, there are 75 species left of the 140 that have been tested over the past century. To safeguard the interest of this heritage site, the Office National des Forêts and the Cévennes National Park are currently reflecting on renewing the collection.

Little by little, the bird makes its nest, its cosy nest, baby cocoon, wasps’ nest…
Like a bird, the artist has gathered materials offered by nature and has arranged them to build three nests, three refuges, three circles that reference perfection and invite meditation.

The Guardian evokes a possible connection, a dream connection, in which humans consider themselves a part of nature, developing in close union with their environment. This Guardian of the Woods overlooking the Aigoual valley was built with natural materials found on site, and gently touches a tree that is still alive.