Transhumance Festivals

Mont Aigual in the Cévennes and Mont Lozère are some of the last places where the summer transhumance is carried out in the traditional manner using cattle tracks, the ancestral paths used by shepherds and their herds to reach the mountain pasture.

The animals, which leave the valleys and plains at the end of spring, reach the pasture land of the high plateaux where they remain until mid-October. In the middle of June, their journey to l'Espérou, on the slopes of Mount Aigoual, is an opportunity for the Transhumance Festival with processions of ‘dressed up’ herds, demonstrations of skills, shearing, herd dog demonstrations and shepherds’ meals.

Transhumance was once under threat, but is being encouraged once again thanks to the important role it plays in maintaining landscapes and preserving the heritage of the Causses and Cévennes UNESCO site.