L'Érable de Sagnes-et-Goudoulet

Sagnes-et-Goudoulet

On the high volcanic plateau where the Loire rises, at more than 1,150 metres above sea level, stands a maple whose stature defies the usual laws of the mountains: more than five metres in girth in so harsh a climate, where trees ordinarily struggle to grow large. An old pollard, shaped over generations by lopping — the periodic cutting that supplied Ardèche peasants with fodder for their livestock and firewood for the winter — its massive, gnarled trunk tells by itself the story of a mountain pastoralism now largely vanished. Each old cut has left its scar, each shoot has set off again to storm the sky, giving the tree the squat, tormented silhouette so characteristic of the plateau's old pollards. Not far away, a second, frailer maple, attacked by a fungus, is a reminder of the fragility of these unassuming giants, unknown to the tourist guides but carefully recorded by enthusiasts of remarkable trees. To come this far is to walk the wild heights where the longest river in France is born, and to meet a veteran of the plant world whose existence few visitors suspect.

Getting there : Commune of Sagnes-et-Goudoulet, Ardèche plateau, near the Mont Gerbier-de-Jonc

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound