A cave in the morning, the river in the afternoon, a steam train the next day. Everything below can be done in a day from the mas, and almost all of it can be booked online, the day before.
Driving times from the mas, on valley roads — allow a little longer in high summer. The links go to the official websites: opening hours, prices and tickets are kept up to date there by the operators.
On the doorstep
-
Lasalle · 5 min
The village
The market, the shops, the restaurants, the temple and the 16th-century Pont Vieux, just below the mas. The Sud Cévennes tourist office has a visitor desk in the village centre: that’s where the week’s ideas come from.
Sud Cévennes tourist office -
From the mas
The river and the trails
The Salindrenque runs through Lasalle: pools of clear water, in the shade, for afternoons that are too hot. The hiking trails leave from the village and climb into the Cévennes National Park.
Cévennes National Park -
From the terrace
The stars
The Cévennes National Park is Europe’s largest International Dark Sky Reserve, certified in 2018. On moonless nights there is nothing to do but look up — and give your eyes ten minutes or so to adjust.
The dark-sky reserve
In the Cévennes valleys
-
Générargues · ≈ 30 min
La Bambouseraie en Cévennes
A forest of giant bamboo planted from 1856 onwards by a spice merchant. Avenues where you feel tiny, gardens, shade everywhere: the outing for heatwave days.
Opening hours and tickets -
Anduze · ≈ 30 min
The Cévennes steam train
A real steam locomotive, forty minutes of narrow-gauge track between Anduze and Saint-Jean-du-Gard, above the Gardon. Tickets are bought online, but that isn’t a reservation: they’re valid on any running day of the season.
Timetable and tickets -
Mialet · ≈ 40 min
The Trabuc cave
An underground lake, petrified waterfalls, and its famous “hundred thousand soldiers”: thousands of tiny formations lined up like an army, which nobody has quite explained. Booking isn’t required.
Prices and tickets -
Mialet · ≈ 40 min
The Musée du Désert
The Protestant memory of the Cévennes, housed in a Camisard farmhouse left just as it was. Open from 1 March to 30 November — exactly our dates.
Opening hours and prices
A little further
-
Saint-Bauzille-de-Putois · ≈ 1 hr
The Demoiselles cave
You go down by funicular and come out in a chamber so high it was nicknamed the cathedral. Tickets are sold online up to two hours before the tour starts.
Online tickets -
Collias · ≈ 1 hr
The Gardon by canoe
From Collias to the Pont du Gard: eight kilometres of easy paddling, pools of clear water, and the Roman aqueduct rising up at the end. Seven routes to choose from, from seven to thirty kilometres.
Book a descent -
Vers-Pont-du-Gard · ≈ 1 hr
The Pont du Gard
Two thousand years old, forty-nine metres high, and a river to swim in at its feet. Online tickets with a date and time slot; parking is paid separately.
Online tickets
Photographs of the places: Wikimedia Commons — Daniel Villafruela, Yvesdu34, PhilEOS, Georges Seguin, Havang(nl), Palickap, Mboesch, Hervé Grison; Milky Way: F. Char/ ESO. Cropped, under CC BY-SA, CC0 and CC BY licences — details in the legal notice.