Cevennes National Park

Created in 1970, the Cevennes park is unusual because its core zone is inhabited and farmed; it protects a working landscape rather than a wilderness. Schist valleys are terraced for chestnut, which fed the population for centuries and gave the tree the name of bread tree, and mulberries were grown for silkworms until the trade collapsed. Transhumance, moving sheep to high summer pasture along old drove roads, still happens and is UNESCO listed with the landscape. Robert Louis Stevenson crossed here in 1878 with a donkey named Modestine, and the GR70 follows his route. The park also has some of the darkest skies in France.

What you actually see

• The chestnut terraces - schist valleys walled and planted with the bread tree.
• The drove roads - transhumance routes still used for summer grazing.
• The Stevenson trail - the GR70 following his 1878 crossing.
• The dark skies - among the least light-polluted areas in France.

When to go

May to June and September to October; summer is hot in the valleys and the high causses are exposed. Autumn brings the chestnut harvest. Transhumance moves in late spring and returns in autumn.

Honest expectations

Roads are narrow, winding and slow, so distances take longer than expected. Villages are small with limited services. This is farmed country, not wilderness, and stock and fences are everywhere.

Nearby

The Gorges du Tarn lie west; Mont Aigoual is in the park.