2. On Fageas ridge (day 2)

9 points of interest

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  Aire de Côte

  Aire-de-Côte farm was purchased by the French State in 1862, during the period of reforestation. Before the farm became a stopover gîte, it was for a long time the residence of the local forester and his family. In the first half of the 20th century, Aire-de-Côte was very different. To the north, behind the house, was the draille (drovers’ road), lined by upright stones and 40 to 50 metres wide. Thousands of transhumant animals passed every year on their way to or from summer pastures. The transhumant animals stopped there at lunchtime, then continued on towards Mont Aigoual.

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  A Resistance refuge

  In early 1943, the first Resistance group of the Cévennes was formed. The refuge of the Aire-de-côte group was one of the wooden shacks used for forestry works, whose roof was camouflaged using branches. On 10 July 1943, a message warned the post office in Rousses that a German attack was imminent. The Resistance was informed – but a storm delayed the group’s departure. The Germans arrived… The forester was arrested as an accomplice, accused of being in radio contact with London. Indeed, the Aire-de-côte Resistance listened to a crystal radio set built by the two Jews who were hiding there.

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  Bonperier

  The etymology of this name is believed to be “good fields”. Indeed, there are fields surrounding the hamlet that are still maintained today. It is said that the hamlet’s inhabitants grew cereals. After harvest, they would take the wheat and rye down to the mill in the village. The oats, however, stayed in the hamlet as livestock fodder.
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  Fauna

  The short-toed snake eag

  From spring to autumn, if you are lucky, you might see a large bird of prey whose underside is almost white and whose head is large and dark: the short-toed snake eagle. These bare ridges, which are hot and sunny during the day, are excellent hunting grounds for this lover of snakes, who knows how to flush them out. It is often windy here, which the snake eagle uses to hunt, not by circling in updrafts like other raptors but by flying on the spot, legs dangling, wings immobile. The snake eagle is migratory and stays here only to nest, from March to October – it winters in Africa

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  Bonperrier and its inn

  Legend has it that up on the Bonperrier ridge, just before the Great War, there was an inn run by two families. The crossroads was a lively place of exchange. The former King’s Road running north-south is also the limit between two municipalities.
  Ridge roads were faster, and the coaching inns located alongside them offered travellers warm and dry overnight stays as well as fresh horses so that they could pursue their journey. Postmen came with the post but also with stories from the neighbouring valleys. In June, transhumant shepherds and their flocks still stay over at Bonperrier before going on to their summer pastures the next morning. Their stopover always turns into a convivial evening even if the inn no longer exists.

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  Flora

  Common broom

  Common broom dominates on the sides of the path. Not appreciated by shepherds or their sheep, this tough legume was harshly condemned by the Cévenol writer Jean-Pierre Chabrol. For him, agricultural abandonment closed the landscape of the Cévennes by making way for broom, which signals the end of a civilisation. 

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  Sheep bridge

  This bridge was expressly built in the 19th century for shepherds heading from the plains of Languedoc to greener regions in the summer. Following the mountain ridges with their flocks, they ascended to the summer pastures. This draille [drovers' road], the Draille de la Margeride, is one of the most famous in the  Cévennes alongside those leading to the Aubrac and the Gévaudan.

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  The draille (drovers’ road) and the sheep bridge

  The draille (drovers’ road) and the sheep bridge  architecture    The sheep bridge at the Col de l’Asclier is on an important draille (a traditional path for livestock migrating to the upland summer pastures of Mont Aigoual and Mont Lozère), which was also a King’s road during the Camisard revolt in the 18th century, a peddlers’ road and is now a long-distance hiking path. The Col de l’Asclier pass (from Occitan asclar, to split), where the road seems to go through a gap, is well-named: it lies on a fault line in the rock. But the most astonishing is the bridge, a bridge without road. It was built to help sheep flocks negotiate this difficult spot!

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  The downy or pubescent oak

  Before the pass, you can see a downy oak wood below the path, with some good-sized specimens. This tree is native to low and intermediate altitudes; from the 9th century onwards, sweet chestnuts were planted in its stead. And yet it provides high-quality wood, resists fire and drought due to its deep roots, and shelters a large number of insect and herbaceous plant species (700 different plant and animal species, including 490 of beetles that live in wood).