Chipping Norton Times - Issue 4/5 - January-February

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28 THE NATURAL WONDERS OF THE CEVENNES Article and photographs by Mike Boyes In the present economic climate you may not wish to travel too far to enjoy a summer holiday. If you are interested in nature, the Cevennes in southern France is a naturalist’s heaven. Last July we drove down at our leisure and stayed for a week in a fairly basic and inexpensive gite with an amazing view, several miles from the nearest village. There are few places in Europe that match the diversity of landscapes and wildlife to be found in the Cevennes and Grands Causses, rugged upland limestone plateaux separated by deep, forested river gorges. The area, made famous in R L Stevenson’s Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes, is unfamiliar to most British travellers, but once you have discovered it you are likely to return again The Cevennes forms the south-eastern part of the Massif Central, and to the south of the region mountains drop down to the Mediterranean near Monpellier. What gives the region its rich diversity are the three different rock types to be found: limestone (the main feature of the dramatic river gorges and uplands of the Causses), granite, and schist – each with its own distinctive habitat. In the space of a week you can explore scenic gorges several hundred metres deep with vertical cliffs and pinnacles of rock that look as if they are about to topple over; dry Mediterranean scrubland, home to a great variety of plants, birds, butterflies and reptiles; grassland and hot, open scrub of the Causses, rich in wild flowers and many butterfly species; sub-alpine heaths and bogs; and forests of chestnut – such a distinctive feature of the Cevennes – together with oak, beech and Maritime pine. No visit to the Cevennes would be complete without an easy ascent of its two highest mountains, each quite different from the other – Mont Lozere (1,699m) and Mont Aigoual (1,565m) If you are interested in butterflies, few places in Europe have more species than the Cevennes, with some 150 species recorded. Some species that are hard to see in Britain can be found without difficulty in different parts of the Cevennes, such as Swallowtails, Silver-washed Fritillaries, Clouded Yellows, and Chalkhill and Adonis Blues. You will see and hear many different insects, damselflies and dragonflies, and it is a challenge to identify them all. Photos (from the top) Griffon Vulture, Gorge de la Jonte Hummingbird Hawkmoth; Granite uplands, Mont Lozere
Photos (from top lef) Beautiful Demoiselle Silver-washed Fritillary Scarce Swallowtail Wild flowers, Mont Aigoual Rock pinnacle, Gorge de la Jonte Common Lizard Wildflowers are so abundant that you can just enjoy the spectacle, or spend your time immersed in a guide book ticking off all those you can identify for sure. Two useful, inexpensive guide books I recommend are: Butterflies of Britain and Europe (Green Guide series, but avoid the companion volume on birds), and Mediterranean Wild Flowers (DK Pocket Nature series). If you want to identify some of the many lizards you will see, then the European Reptile and Amphibian Guide is very useful. Space precludes a list of all the birds, butterflies, moths, insects and lizards we saw, but the few illustrations included here may encourage you to visit and explore this magnificent, scenic, richly varied and largely unspoilt region of France. If you enjoy nature and the great outdoors, give yourself a treat and visit the Cevennes this summer. Copywrite:Mike Boyes©MB.09.10 29
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Chipping Norton Times - Issue 4/5 - January-February

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