Eco-hiking in France to be Derailed?

Written by Super Member: Scott Anderson

Friday, 30 January 2009

The Enlightened Traveller is actively engaged in striking the right balance in promoting responsible travel in France. We are critical of mass tourism; and of tour operators that pay lip service to the environment, whilst producing brochures that contribute to the destruction of rainforests. Is it the only travel company bearing business cards printed on recycled paper? Very possibly, yes. So it is not surprising that we view the covert agenda of French Railways, the SNCF, with some dismay: the closure of the magnificent 'Cevenol' mountain railway looks increasingly likely.

The Cevennes railway lies in south-central France, linking Nimes to Clermont Ferrand along a section of the Paris to Marseille line called the "line of 100 tunnels." Make that 106 tunnels, numerous bridges and galleries, and some of ‘railwaydom’s’ highest and most spectacular viaducts. Veritable works of industrial art, they form just part of the enormous historical investment expended on opening up Languedoc to Paris in the 1870s. It took some six or seven thousand men six years of their lives to build a railroad that would confound most civil engineers today were its creation to be mooted afresh.

The immense technological feat, weighing in at a staggering 520 million francs, puts the enormity of the challenge, and its realization, into its true historical context. It is a national treasure and, like most of the world’s heritage, it takes brinkmanship to shake people into action and foreigners to educate national leaders as to just how important the preservation of such gems is to future generations. Perhaps the answer lies in the line's adoption as a World Heritage Site? Maybe that’s the answer.

Nevertheless, one would have thought that the magnitude of the human costs resulting from the line's closure would have been enough to set the alarm bells ringing. Not so, or at least not the right bells. Lozere is France's most thinly-populated department with only 15 people per square kilometre. Add to that the fact that is has the highest average altitude of any department and the word 'remote' trips quite easily off the tongue. This then is the mountain region traversed by the Cevenol. On the upside, Lozere boasts the lowest unemployment level in France, of between five and six percent. However, there's no 'Silicon Plateau' to thank for this, just straightforward massive rural de-population.

Those that have remained are engaged in either agriculture (itself at an all-time low) or tourism, and there lies the rub: at the very moment when green tourism is hailed as the future hope for those remaining in the countryside, short-term economic rationality wields the axe to the only real and sustainable means by which today's eco-friendly travellers can access the region. And it is not without some irony, that France has just witnessed rail freight volumes exceeding those carried by lorry for the first time since the hey-day of rail transport.

The estimated cost required for the line's repair and maintenance is estimated at fifty million Euros (approx. 68 million USD). In contrast to the billions that are being spent on keeping profligate car firms alive, it's cheap and money well spent. Yet the last thing the Cevenol needs is state interference in the form of the omnipresent tourist boards launching some horrendous value-added (sic) exercise that would only serve to squeeze the real life and nature out of the 'product,' replacing it with a fabricated 'plan touristique' lacking authenticity. The French state doesn't 'do tourism' very well, and any move towards trinket shops in railway stations and the further sanitization of hiking trails will simply kill the 19th Century goose that laid the golden Cevenol egg.

Those that are familiar with the case of The Regordane Way, a medieval trail that is a hiking history book, will know what I am saying: the State decided what should be preserved in its name and the resulting concoction is a dog's dinner with which very few outside the local 'postes de tourismes' are happy. In the end, and as is the case with the preservation of the medieval Regordane, the best way to conserve our heritage is to give it our patronage, not patronize it.

So of what relevance is hiking to the continuance of The Cevenol? Well, it won't be its saviour, but it can play an important role in the economic diversity of the region and the improved viability of the railroad. The land traversed by the Cevennes Railway is truly spectacular hiking country and the Cevenol provides excellent access to its fruits. The natural fault-line running down the eastern flank of the Cevennes is home to both The Cevenol and The Regordane; whilst the railroad provides an entrée to those wishing to trek part or all of the Robert Louis Stevenson Trail - not to mention some great circular hiking options that are spread out along its course and known only to the local cognoscenti.

If you enjoy the simple pleasures of train travel for its own sake, and are not in too much of a hurry to arrive, then The Cevenol is an experience you need to place on your wish-list. Hikers of the world will unite in rating the beauty of the Languedoc trails that lie either side of the rails as being some of the best in France, whilst those who are smitten by both means of conveyance will have the time of their lives. But please don't defer your decision making for too long, for you risk missing out on what could become one of France's mythical journeys of yesteryear. The local population rose up and held demonstrations late last year in the face of what seemed to be the imminent closure of the line. They won a reprieve, but for how long is anyone's guess.

Further details on the Cevenol can be found at The Cevennes Railway and Endangered: France's most beautiful railroad!

The Enlightened Traveller is proud to play an active role in the Cevenol’s preservation via eco-friendly hiking tours in France that feature a mix of short rides along the railroad and enjoyable hikes in the surrounding countryside.

© The Enlightened Traveller 2009 – all rights reserved worldwide

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