Hours of walk: 6
Rise: 1200 m
Drop: 700 m

Itinerary

You cross the whole village leading towards the north and then turn left in avenue de la Gare towards the train station. The GR 44/68 crosses the river near the train station, and it then rises up to a saddle. Just past it, the route ascends to the right along an extremely narrow path marked by a cross, to the reach a rocky spur amongst low vegetation. This detour leads to an extraordinary panoramic point overlooking the Villefort lake and the arched railway bridge which crosses it. Then, back on the marked track, the GR goes on along the mountainside into the forest, already being in the national park of the Cévennes. After a forest path in the wood, the landscape again becomes a rural one, just before the hamlet of l’Habitarelle: barbed-wire fenced meadows, cow herds and cattle sheds reveal the vocation of this territory. The route covers dirt roads and asphalted ones void of traffic, where the road signs – sponsored by collection and distribution companies – indicate to walkers that they are on a “milky way”. The itinerary passes by the hamlets of Villespasses (845 m), the fortified farm of La Prade (836 m), Pomaret (836 m) and Cubières (978 m). The itinerary rises again bordering the Bois de Neyrac, which has fine specimens of birch and sylvan pine trees, up to the hamlet of Neyrac (1070 m). You then reach the Col Santel (1195 m), and follow the GR that descends to Le-Bleymard just past it.

Food and accommodation

-In Le-Bleymard

Hôtel Restaurant La Remise
Historical inn on the D 901 (at the crossroads with the D 20). Closed at Christmas, 20 rooms, tel. 33 (0)4 66 48 65 80.

Other options for food and accommodation can be found in town and rising on Mont Lozère.
Office de Tourisme de Le Bleymard, avenue de la Gare, tel. 33 (0)4 66 47 61 13.