Mont Aigoual, Val-d’Aigoual

Mont Aigoual rises to 1 565 metres in the south of the Massif Central, on the boundary between the Gard and Lozère. Its highest point, the Hort de Dieu signal, lies in the commune of Valleraugue, on the Gard side. It has housed a weather observatory built like a small fortress since 1894. It is the highest point in the Gard and the second highest summit in Lozère and the Cévennes after the Finiels.

A summit between two seas

The summit plateau, at over 1 500 metres, is crossed by the watershed between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. To the west, rounded ridges descend towards the gorges of the Tarnon, the Jonte and the Dourbie. To the east, the slope falls towards the springs of the Hérault: some 1 250 metres of height difference separate the village of Valleraugue from the summit. On very clear days, the orientation table on the 1908 tower makes it possible to pick out the Alps, the Pyrenees and the Gulf of Lion. Such days are rare. The Aigoual is one of the wettest places in France, with a little over two metres of rain a year and about 240 days of fog.

A reconstructed forest

Le massif n’a pas toujours été boisé comme aujourd’hui. Au XIX^e siècle, la forêt surexploitée et le surpâturage laissent les sols à nu, et les pluies provoquent des crues catastrophiques dans les vallées, notamment à Valleraugue. À partir de 1875, le forestier Georges Fabre dirige le reboisement, première grande opération de ce genre menée en France contre l’érosion. Les bergers, qui craignent de perdre leurs pâturages, mettent parfois le feu aux jeunes arbres. Fabre crée dix arboretums pour tester les essences et fait appel au botaniste Charles Flahault, de Montpellier. Hêtraies et arbres venus d’ailleurs, comme le cèdre de l’Atlas, font aujourd’hui du massif une curiosité botanique.

Cévennes memory

L’Aigoual est un haut lieu de l’histoire des camisards, puis des maquisards. Des écrivains cévenols comme André Chamson, Jean-Pierre Chabrol ou Jean Carrière s’en sont inspirés. Au XVI^e siècle déjà, deux étudiants bâlois, Felix et Thomas Platter, notaient qu’ils ne se lassaient pas du panorama.

An energy site buffeted by the winds

Mont Aigoual regularly comes up when energy-site enthusiasts discuss exceptional mountain summits. The wind, strong for more than 260 days a year, the breadth of the view and the harshness of the climate give the summit a distinctive atmosphere. If you climbed up to the observatory, tell us how you experienced that wind and view.

The best-known walk is the climb of the “4 000 steps”, which links Valleraugue to the observatory. The observatory has a discovery space devoted to meteorology and the massif; the station has been fully automated since the end of 2023, after being the last mountain weather station in France staffed all year round. In winter, the Prat Peyrot ski resort, the largest in the Cévennes, opens its slopes.