Land of Rivers and Peaks – The Cévennes and the Rhône

Destinations 2 x 52' 2019 - 2022 4K

This two-part documentary series portraits the Cévennes National Park, one of the largest national parks in France and the Rhône, one of the longest and most significant rivers in Europe.

The first episode goes on a journey of discovery into a unique landscape and its inhabitants, including rare flora and fauna. The Cévennes’ imposing plateaus, karst landscapes, deep gorges and vast forests stretch across the departments of Lozère, Gard and Hérault. On Mont Aigoual sits the last year-round inhabited weather station in France. The meteorologists have to go out in winter at wind speeds of over 100 kilometers per hour to check the sensitive measuring instruments. In May and June, bird conservationists risk everything to ring young griffon vulture chicks in the steep walls of the gorges of the Jonte and Dourbie rivers. They descend to the nests at dizzying heights to ring up to 50 chicks per season. Vultures have been reintroduced to the Cévennes in 1981. Their population has since recovered with over 600 griffon vultures circling above the spectacular scenery. In the Cévennes the glory of past days is being carefully maintained. Testimony to this is the old steam railroad "Train à Vapeur" which takes railroad enthusiasts through the valleys of the Cévennes from April to October and the former silk spinning mills which brought wealth to the region since the 18th century. Today, the breeding of silkworms is making a bit of a comeback. There is much to be discovered in this extraordinary, yet lesser-known region in the South of France.

The second episode follows the Rhône from its source in a glacier in the high Swiss Alps, to where it flows through Lake Geneva and, once it reaches France, separates the mountain ranges of the Alps and the Jura. It passes through the Lyon conurbation and shapes 300 kilometres of the Rhône Valley, light-filled and densely populated, before branching out and bordering the plains of the Camargue as the Great and Small Rhône. After 812 kilometres, France's most abundant river flows into the Mediterranean. During its course, it flows through a wide variety of landscapes, passing old towns steeped in history and highly technical industrial centres. This episode portrays the Rhône as the life blood of Switzerland and the South of France and asks about the river's future – as an engine of economic development and a natural area worthy of protection. The many different faces of the river reveal haunting stories of people who live with and along the Rhône: Biologists, fishermen, historians, farmers, engineers, riverboat men and many more.

Episodes:

1. The Cévennes – Hidden Beauty in the South of France

2. The Rhône – From the Swiss Alps to the Camargue

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