Lozère (48) and Gard (30)

The tiny village of L'Estampe nestles in a deep gorge and is spanned by the huge "Viaduct de Mirandol". Note that trains reach the viaduct from tunnels (on both sides). See the snow in the back, and imagine, how much snow will be here in December. That´s what the tunnels are built for..

A round mirror, the Viaduct de Mirandol and me.

The Viaduct de Mirandol was already out of sight, when I reached the snow..

.. crossroads on the Col de la Planette (1292m). Turning right - and following the GR70 - would take me to Florac and later via St-Julien d´Arpaon to Cassagnas. I decided to take a shortcut, as walking on straight ahead would take me to Cassagnas the same day.

I had seen the snow on the mountains over the last days. Now I had to cross the first higher ridge (1450m). Some snow is fun, but as it got more and more, it got just diffcult to walk (without special equipment). After some hours I left the trail and followed the road. There was not much traffic.

On top of the ridge, I could see the Mt. Lozere. With even more snow. It was really cold now. Two hours later I reached Bleymard.

... guests of friendly and very polyglot Anita and Felix Klein for three nights at "La Combette". They offered us a great room, all informations needed - and phanatstic food. They even had snowshoes! And they really love cheese! Merci beaucoup! www.cevennes-mont-lozere.com/mont-lozere/default-en.htm

..used the road for walking up. On top (around 1600m), I tried the snowshoes, Felix had borrowed me. It was fun, but pretty slow. I did not feel safe to follow the chemin using them. It was foggy - and from time to time the "balisage" was not visible, as the red/white marks were just hidden under the snow. So after I while, I started to walk down towards Le Pont-de-Montvert (900m)...

As it was just too much snow, I walked the road down from Mt. Lozère, as the weather had cleared up - and the sun was shining, this was an easy walk.

.. the medieval bridge spans over the Tarn. The village was a center of french Protestantism in the 17th century. The assassination of abbé de Chayla, who persecuted the "Huguenots", sparked the rebellion of the Camisards in 1702. At the end of the rebellion, the Protestants could live in peace. Some of the Camisards migrated to England. Jean Cavalier, one of their leaders, became Governor of the island of Jersey later. Some may have had connections to the Shakers...

.. looking back (north) over the valley of the Tarn to the Mont Lozere. I am sure, this area reminded Stevenson to Scotland, where he was born.

... no snow anymore. The temperature got milder. Here was spring. Walking south now was easy. The geology had changed as well from granite to glimmering mica slate.

Back on the GR70. The old station of Cassagnas (now a CdH, gite, restaurant) reminds on the days of steam trains.

From time to time, the red/white balisage of the GR70 was difficult to find. Here somebody used a spray-can to show the direction.

A prehistoric menhir on the left and an open stone cist grave in the middle, further to the edge, facing south. There are quite some menhirs here in this part of the mountains.

Unfortunately the parish-church in Saint-Germain-de-Calberte was locked. This is a protestant church. Still today about 90% of the people living in the Cévennes are Protestants. The "grandchildren" of the Camisard-Rebellion - - and the French Revolution....

Looking back to Saint-Germain-de-Calberte. Visible up in the mountains is a huge horse-riding-camp - plus a hotel.

An old farm on the terraced slopes of the mountains in the sun...