CHASSERADESThe Viaduct of Mirandol, a railway leading to Mende, the district capital of Lozère.

• 27 September 1878: RL Stevenson shared a room at an inn to spend the night.He met some of the men in charge of making surveys to have the viaduct built. (It was built only 4 years later)

• This tunnel, like so many others along this railway, is aimed at avoiding the formation of snowdrifts, so frequent in this area (1150m at its lowest point, 1500m at its highest point).The river Lot springs from Mount Goulet in this area..

CHASSERADES (2)• This place is much cherished

for trekking, biking, fishing trout and mushroom harvest…

• Here the river Chassezac forms a canyon where whitewater rafting , or canyoning, can be practised.

• The donkey owners used to walk up this route from the South to sell wine, olive oil or salt.

• Instead, they would buy straw, hay, cheese, salted meat, cereals, (wheat, bran or barley) or lentils.

• The Puylaurent dam is the biggest ever built in France at the end of XXth century: 73 m high and 220 m long.

Le BleymardThis village is situated 1069 metres at its highest, nestled at the bottom of « Mount Lozère ».

It is lined with 4 rivers which spring from « Mount Lozère ».

The roofs are covered with « lauzes ». They are grey flat tiles from slates.

The word « lauzes », or slates, has given its name to our départment: « Lozère »

Green tourism attracts nature lovers to Le Bleymard.

A house at Le Bleymard

Its church

A hotel

Mount Lozère and the National Park of the

CèvennesThe culminating point at Finiels is 1699m.The narrow roads wind up to the naked plateau.

The ski resorts are family-spiritted. We can do cross-country skiing, alpine skiing, snow-racket, snow-board or sleighing activities on adapted tracks

There, we can see the waterfalls of Rhunes, one of the highest cascades: 58m of waterfalls.

We can also find an important field of menhirs and prehistoric remains. Gaulish coins were found here.

•The wild beauty of this place has been preserved in the core of the « National Park of the Cévennes ».

•There are : - more than 1600 plant species, including 35 protected species, and 21 unique ones in the world.- 89 species of mammals (stags, roe-deers, beavers, wild boars…),- 208 species of birds (vultures for instance),- 35 species of reptiles and of batrachians,- 24 species of fish.

•The winters are very cold there. It is like a veritable Siberia.We can find, along our course, « storm bell-towers ». On the days of blizzard, people used to ring the bells to direct the stray travellers.

Not far from the source of the river Tarn.

Trekking in Mount Lozère

A storm bell-tower

Mount Lozère and the National Park of the Cèvennes (2)