Cévennes National Park

The Cévennes is one of the few national parks where people still live in the core: the park counts 71,290 permanent inhabitants in 123 communes. Created in 1970, it spreads over three departments, the Lozère, the Gard and the Ardèche.

A core, an area of adhesion and a green band on the map

The park is drawn in two rings, and only the inner one carries its own rules:

• The core: 362 mi² in 39 communes, governed by decree no. 2009-1677 of 29 December 2009.
• The area of adhesion: 842 mi², grouping the 114 communes that signed the charter, with no particular environmental regulation.

Signs mark the way into the core:

• on the roads, “Parc national des Cévennes, Zone de protection”;
• on the paths, a welcome into a protected territory;
• on IGN maps, a broad, unbroken green band.

Hunting kept, vultures brought back

When the park was created, keeping hunting in the core was one of the main terms of the contract between the State and the inhabitants. The park still considers it necessary to balance large hoofed animals, farming and forest, and sets aside tranquillity zones over more than 16% of the core.

More than 2,400 animal species are recorded:

• 70 of France’s 135 mammal species;
• 195 bird species, 135 of them breeding;
• 26 reptiles, 16 amphibians and 23 fish;
• more than 2,000 invertebrates.

Some species came back, one was lost:

• the park reintroduced the griffon and cinereous vultures, which the deep Tarn and Jonte gorges now shelter;
• the Eurasian otter has returned;
• the little bustard has gone.

The core holds 168 habitat types, and the park has 74 of the 131 habitats of European interest found in mainland France.

Menhirs, Camisards and silkworms

The layers of history follow one another across the park:

1. The cham des Bondons, with nearly 200 menhirs and dolmens, 70 of them standing: the second-largest concentration of menhirs in France.
2. The Gallo-Roman mausoleum of Lanuéjols.
3. Medieval bridges and churches at Ispagnac and Quézac.
4. The Camisard war of the early eighteenth century.
5. Silkworm rearing in the same century.

• Ten museums tell that story, among them the Maison rouge, the Musée cévenol and the Musée du Désert.
• UNESCO inscribed the agropastoral cultural landscapes of the Causses and the Cévennes on the World Heritage List in 2011.
• The park has been a biosphere reserve since 1985.

Weather on the Aigoual, stars over the whole park

The Aigoual takes the full force of rain, snow, wind and fog, under its weather observatory at 5,141 ft.

• The forest that now covers more than 70% of the massif came from replanting led by Georges Fabre from the late nineteenth century.
• Tengmalm’s owl and the black woodpecker are the emblems of its forests.
• The visitor centre at the col de la Serreyrède was hit by a fire in December 2024.
• On 13 August 2018 the park became an International Dark Sky Reserve, the second in France after the Pic du Midi.

Sites for visitors with reduced mobility

• The Maison du tourisme et du Parc at Florac is accessible.
• The Puechagut trail (2,953 ft there and back) carries the Tourisme et Handicap label for all four types of disability.
• The forêt magique platform at the Mas de la Barque is described as accessible to all types of disability.