Hiking in Lozère

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Hiking in Lozère

Thanks to its rich natural heritage, Lozère is without doubt near the top of the list when it comes to leisure and sporting activities in the great outdoors.
Its geography and landscape, along with its fauna and flora, make it a place keen hikers really should not miss out on.
Lozère is full of variety, offering something different around every corner, with bare flats that suddenly fall away, cut through steeply by a river; the vast Causse plateaux; and the less extreme landscapes of Aubrac and Margeride, or the valleys sunk into the dark shale of the Cévennes.
Wherever you happen to be, you are never more than a few footsteps from the heart of the area's natural surroundings, whether exploring the little valleys of the Gévaudan, with their wild forests, pastures and marshland, or climbing the granite mass of Mont Lozère, home of broom, purple heather and blue bilberries.
One original way to explore the paths of Lozère is by following in the footsteps of Robert Louis Stevenson. Surprising though it may seem, Stevenson wrote a magnificent account of the 12-day journey he made in the Cévennes in 1878.
Hopelessly in love with a young American he had met near Paris, he was distraught when she had to return to her husband in the United States. Deciding to deal with his torment himself, he planned a journey south, in the direction of the Cévennes.
Therefore, at nine o'clock in the morning on the 22nd September 1878, he set off with a female donkey named 'Modestine' for 12 days of walking, encounters and reflection.
One year after the end of these 12 days, he published the journal he had kept on the journey, naming it 'Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes'.
Comité Départemental de la Randonnée Pédestre,
CDT - 14, boulevard Henri Bourillon - 48000 Mende, France.
Tel.: +33 (0)4 66 47 17 03.
Codep Lozère Fédération Française de Cyclotourisme (FFCT):
7, rue d'Emborelle - 48100 Marvejols, France.
Tel.: +33 (0)4 66 32 64 35.