Nîmes-le-Vieux
The rock tangle Nîmes-le-Vieux ( French Chaos de Nîmes-le-Vieux ) is located on the Causse Méjean in the Lozère department . It is a collection of bizarre boulders, rock needles, arches and small caves on a woodless limestone plateau.
The area is located north of the Col de Perjuret ( location ) between the places Florac and Meyrueis in the Cevennes National Park . Access to the area is from the pass, over which the GR 60 long-distance hiking trail leads. Circular hiking trails start at l'Hom and le Veygalier, as well as at Gally. Nîmes-le-Vieux extends at an altitude of around 1100 m for about 4.5 km in a south-west-north-east direction. A signposted circular hiking trail leads through the area.
The name Nîmes-le-Vieux was first coined in 1908 by Paul Arnal, the pastor of Vébron, in analogy to the Chaos de Montpellier-le-Vieux .
The hamlets of L'Hom , Galy , Villeneuve and Veygalier are nestled between the rocks . Today, sheep farming dominates agriculture, which has shaped the landscape here for several millennia. The small-scale grassland with rocky areas offers a variety of insects and thus birds habitat: falcons , rock thrush , lark or backed Shrike . Typical plant is the limestone-finger herb ( Potentilla caulescens ) is endemic the Cévennen- saxifrage ( Saxifraga cebennensis ).
Sources and literature
- Sentier de Nîmes-le-Vieux. (PDF; 407 kB) Parc national des Cévennes , Florac , 2008, accessed on November 21, 2010 (French / English).
- Janette Norton: Walking in the Cevennes . Cicerone, 2002, ISBN 1-85284-336-5 , Walk 26: Le Chaos de Nîmes le Vieux (Causse Méjean), pp. 182–187 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed November 21, 2010]).
Web links
Coordinates: 44 ° 13 ′ 56 ″ N , 3 ° 31 ′ 49 ″ E