A Book of the Cevennes
1907
The Cevennes has always been France's secret heart, a landscape of volcanic peaks, chestnut forests, and profound historical memory. Written in 1907 by the prolific Victorian polymath S. Baring-Gould, this book captures a France that had yet to be tamed by modernity. Baring-Gould was an Anglican priest, hagiographer, antiquarian, and novelist whose passion for ancient landscapes permeates every page. He takes readers through the region's geological drama, its contrasting climates, and the hardy communities carved into these rugged hills. But this is more than mere geography: the Cevennes holds the memory of Huguenot refugees fleeing persecution, of ancient trade routes, and of a older, wilder France. Baring-Gould writes with the confident authority of a man who had spent a lifetime digging into the past, yet his prose carries genuine wonder at what he discovers. For travelers who want more from a region than listless sightseeing, for anyone drawn to the edges of Europe where history lingers in the landscape, this book remains a window onto a lost and luminous world.
