The Chemin de St. Guilhem connects the Aubrac mountains to the Languedoc coast. In 10 days, you travel 112 miles through four French departments: Herault, Aveyron, Lozère, and Gard. The St-Guilhem Way: On foot from Ste-Enimie to the Navacelles in the park of Cévennes National Park. It was established 50 years ago to safeguard the area’s wildlife and plants. It is also France’s only national reserve populated by farmers and craftsmen. This is why it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The following are six compelling reasons to walk the St-Guilhem Way:
- Lozère
For the past twenty years, The Enlightened Traveler has been walking throughout France, fourteen of them professionally. Lozère is without a doubt our favorite hiking department, since it offers everything a nature-loving hiker looks for: isolation, height, a diverse terrain, wildlife and flora, and a lack of commercialization. - Migration of sheep in the Cévennes
When you walk the St-Guilhem Way, you are following a path that has been used since the beginning of time. Transhumance is a type of pastoral nomadism that involves cattle moving from established upper pastures in the summer to lower valleys in the winter.
Sheep migration is a unique feature of the Cévennes. The scale of the migrations has decreased substantially since the middle of the nineteenth century. - A Path of Pilgrimage
The Pilgrims were the earliest visitors, and there were numerous options for getting from Le Puy-en-Velay to Rome or Santiago de Compostela. The Via Podiensis was, and continues to be, France’s most significant Camino. Those having time to spare and a desire to explore the Cevennes and Lower Languedoc had two options: the Chemin de St-Gilles at the north-eastern Cevennes (also known as The Regordane, the medieval Christendom’s, the 4th-most-vital pilgrimage path) and this is St-Guilhem Way at the south. Both permitted pilgrims to visit religious locations (the Abbey of St Gilles and Gellone, respectively) before deciding whether to take the Arles Route east to Rome or west to Compostela, so, if you decide to walk the St-Guilhem Way, you’ll be in excellent company. - A historically significant commercial route.
If you walk the St-Guilhem Way, you’re walking in the footsteps of early traders. The St-Guilhem path ensured connection between the coastal plains and the significant marketplaces of Le Vigan (silk) and Meyrueis starting in the 11th century, when the climate naturally warmed up and sedentary inhabitants began to travel to trade (mostly along The Regordane) (hats). - Human heritage abounds
Another motivation to stroll the St-Guilhem Way is for this reason. “Burons” may be found in the Aubrac area. Solid Lauze roofs cover these tiny, half submerged granite homes. Crosses come in a broad variety of shapes and sizes, and they typically have diverse purposes. The devotional and directional crosses situated at major points along the path are the most essential. They were built in vast numbers throughout the Middle Age to guide and protect pilgrims on their journey. Along the road to Saint Guilhem, one cross stands out above the rest: La Croix de La Rode in the Aubrac area. The name “La Rode” comes from the form of the building: “rode” means “wheel.” - UNESCO World Heritage Site
The St-Guilhem Way takes you through territory that is nearly exclusively UNESCO World Heritage Sites under the heading of Mediterranean aggro-pastoralism. Hundreds of thousands of people visit the Cirque de Navacelles, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a Grand Site of France, each year to appreciate it from above. The St-Guilhem Way is worth walking for this reason alone. Few people, however, have the opportunity to experience it in the way that you will when you walk the St-Guilhem Way. The Cirque is a former oxbow lake or dried-up river meander that is 300 meters deep.
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