See www.france-voyage.com. Anduze, the eastern ‘Gateway to the Cévennes’ on the Gardon d’Anduze, makes a useful base for excursions into the Parc National des Cévennes. It is an attractive small town with winding streets and an old clock tower, the sole remnant of the original château and fortifications demolished on Richelieu’s orders in 1629. Pottery is made here.

The Camisard hero Roland was born in the hamlet of le Mas Soubeyran (7 km NW via the D50) in 1680. His birthplace is now a pilgrimage for Protestants, several thousand of whom gather here each September to commemorate the suffering of their forebears. Roland’s house, with the hidey-hole where our hero concealed himself during raids by the king’s troops, forms part of the Musée du Désert. Among displays which recall the ‘wilderness’ years of French Protestantism are ingenious folding altars, bibles and scores of documents. Just up the road from the museum, an army of stalagmites ranged about the cool limestone cavern of the Grotte de Trabue have earned the nickname the Hundred Thousand Soldiers.

From May to September (schedules from the tourist information office), a steam train puffs through the hills to Saint-Jean-du-Gard with a stop at the Bambuseraie de Prafrance (2 km N via the D129). Here, more than 60 varieties of bamboo rustle dryly in the breeze and additional shade is provided by an arboretum planted with sequoias, oaks and scented magnolias.