Weekend in the Cevennes

We’ve made a bit of a tradition of organizing surprise weekends for each others as birthday pressies, me and Mathilde. So this weekend, it was time for Mathilde’s surprise weekend – about 3 months after her birthday, but hey, better late than never, right?

For this special occasion, I had planned a “botanical walk” for Mathilde – something she’d expressed interest in for some time… After some research, I found an interesting-seeming little hotel in a small town located near Nimes, in the Cevennes. The Cevennes is a sparsely located, hilly region, which is part of the Massif Central.

We headed off a bit after noon from sunny Cagnes, and made good progress, managed to avoid traffic jams, and arrived at our lodgings around 6PM, well in time for dinner ;-). After parking in the main square, we made our way to our bed ‘n breakfast, where we were welcomed by our hostess, a French-American artist/botanist/reporter, called Corine. I don’t know if bed ‘n breakfast is exactly the right word – the house is a real artist’s home, with the decoration being quite a whimsical mix of art, plants she’s collected and framed, and various types of furniture. Definitely not your average type of hotel, that’s for sure. Corine struck me as quite a character as well…

Having checked in, we headed out to explore town. There isn’t all that to see, actually, the main sight being the silk museum (silk used to be the main industry in the Cevennes). So we rather quickly ended up having pastis on one of the bar terraces by the main square. The atmosphere here is definitely different from Provence – the place had quite a “rustic” and “rough ‘n ready” feel (there were a fair few drunkards in the street – reminded me of dear Finland!). It felt rather chilly as well, compared to back home on the Cote. After consuming our aperitif, we made our way to the restaurant that had recommended to us – quite a nice place serving rather interesting dishes (I had frog legs – and yes they did taste a bit like chicken!).

The next morning it was time for the “botanic walk”, which was the main reason for our trip. Corine led the way in her little Peugeot into the Cevennes foothills, to a small village from where we started our hike. We were also joined by a friend of hers, an author, and his cranky old dog.

The walk was, shall we say, rather interesting. Corine clearly knows all about flowers, plants and the like, but isn’t much of a guide, to be honest. We kind of got the impression she didn’t really know where she was going, and that she didn’t have much of a sense of direction (she even asked me which way to go a couple of times! Eh?). Things weren’t helped by our author who just decided to gallop off, leaving the three of us with his not very motivated old dog, who refused to go anywhere without his master. After a bit of sporty hiking, we caught up with our dear author friend, who after some deliberation decided to head back to the village with his four-legged friend (who had obviously had enough).

We eventually reached our objective, a scenic pass with great views over the Cevennes. The place is known for the fact that some resistance fighters were executed there during World War II. The Cevennes was quite a stronghold for the French Resistance, apparently (not surprising – considering how remote the region is). In fact, the Cevennes is also unusual in that it’s one of the few Protestant regions in France (I guess the folks in this part of the world are rebels at heart or something?). After enjoying the views and the sunshine for a while, we made our way back to the village, where we found our author friend sitting at the local bar, having a drink with a few local hunters (which are numerous in this part of the world).

Since our hike took quite a bit longer than expected, all restaurants were basically closed by the time we got back to our village. We did find a little bakery where we bought some pastries to alleviate the hunger… We were also kindly treated to some salad and tasty local specialties back at our B n' B (fair enough, really, if you ask me...). By the time we finished our late lunch, it was a bit late to do much else. We did decide to check out one of the nearby towns, La Vigan, though. Nothing much to see there, although it was a pleasant enough little town with a lively main square – but the drive there and back was pretty scenic. We finished the day with a very nice dinner in a nearby village, Dufort.

After a good night’s sleep, it was time to check out, say bye bye to our hostess, and head off. We did decide to explore the region a bit more before heading back home, though. We started off with a quick walk around Durfort, the village where we dined the night before. It’s a pleasant enough historic village, perhaps a bit less cute than some of the places in neighbourly Provence, but refreshingly un-touristy.

Our next stop was Saint-Jean-du-Gard, a major town of the Cevennes. It’s a pretty nice old place as well, with its well-preserved old town and nice riverside views (as the name suggests, the Gard river crosses the town). We found a delightful little restaurant, with a very nice rooftop terrace, where we stopped for a very pleasant lunch. We were once again struck by the rather good value for money the food represents in this part of the world.

Having sated our appetites, we set the course for our “main destination” of the day; Uzès. We decided to stop shortly at Anduze, yet another picturesque Cevennes town (again with strong protestant traditions), beautifully located in a picturesque gorge (yes, I took quite a few photos). We stopped for a short walk around town and a well-deserved coffee. But time was of essence, so we pressed on for Uzès.

Uzès is an old historic town, which I’ve read good things about on a couple of occasions. And the town is certainly worth the detour. It’s one of the most well-preserved mediaeval towns I’ve been to in France, in that charming nearly Procenvesque way, with its handsome town houses, well-maintained cobble-stone streets and impressive cathedral. There was actually some sort of «ass festival » on during our visit (that would be the animal, of course…). All in all, we spent a very pleasant afternoon visiting Uzès, and checking out all those asses. The cathedral was pretty nice as well, although I think our « church overdose » from our Italian odyssey was still a bit too fresh in our minds for us to be able to appreciate its charms fully. After a very nice ice cream in a cosy teahouse, it was unfortunately time to hit the road for Cagnes.

I can warmly recommend a visit to the Cevennes to anybody who likes getting off the beaten path. Just don’t expect to find much in terms of cultural activities in case it rains...