Route of the artisans of yesteryear in Sainte-Croix

In Sainte-Croix-Vallée-Française, park in the car park below the town hall and the Catholic church.

Unmarked route

(S/E) Leave the car park heading south and, at the crossroads, turn left towards the town centre for pedestrians.

(1) Turn left onto the footbridge over the Gardon, then turn right on the other side and continue straight ahead on the road, noting the numerous plaques on the houses. Leave the village and arrive at a bridge over the Gardon, which you should cross.

(2) On the other side, note the paintings on the "cinema". Turn right, note a Protestant tomb below on the right, continue along the road and note the terraces or terraces on the left. Turn right at the first street, signposted Pedestrians. Pass below the Protestant temple, where there is an information panel about the first female pastor in France. Find the footbridge on the right.

(1) Stay on the street and return below the town hall by following the same route you took on the way there. At the crossroads, with the car park on your right, continue straight ahead to climb up to the church and enter the adjacent cemetery. On the right, steps lead back down to the street. Follow it to the left, go to the bridge over the Gardon and cross the river

(3) On the other side, turn right at the next intersection to return to the village, noting the plaques on the houses. Take the footbridge again to return to the right bank.

(1) On the other side, take the street on the right for the third time, go to the crossroads and then to the car park on the right (S/E).

Very easy walk requiring no special equipment. Take care on the roads.

Discover more walks in this area with a description or the Visorando app here

Photo album here
In the 1930s, Sainte-Croix-Vallée Française was rich in craft, agricultural and festive activities. Around thirty works by artists living in the region illustrate the economic activity of this period with pretty plaques on the houses, recalling the shops and crafts they housed at the time.
Some beautiful old houses, a Romanesque church, unfortunately closed.
Along the route, there are signs with information that can be read via QR code.

The Gardon de Saint-Croix river runs through the village. It has been awarded the "Rivière en bon état" (Riverin Good Condition) label.

The village grocery stores were part of retail chains that began to develop in France at the end of the 19th century. Les Économats du Centre and La Ruche had branches in Montpellier and Clermont-Ferrand, which supplied them by stagecoach and then by bus. Foodstuffs were sold in bulk, using a scoop for sugar, salt and dried vegetables, or drawn from cans for oil, wine and other non-food liquids (lamp oil, etc.).
Most families produced their own wine. Each winegrower could distil part of their production in a still, after declaring it to the Indirect Tax Authority, which authorised a maximum of 20 litres of 50% proof brandy.
If they were not lucky enough to have a spring on their land, the inhabitants had to fetch drinking water from the right bank of the Gardon, at the Fontaine Fraîche or the Fontaine de la Placette. In 1933, a local woman donated her spring to the municipality, which installed three standpipes in the village, two of them on the left bank.
The village benefited from its proximity to the Gardon: a natural wash house, watering of gardens by pumping or from wells. More distant plots were irrigated by small dug or built canals, known as béals, which were fed by a stream on which a diversion dam, or païssière, had been built. Every last bit of land was cultivated on terraces or benches.
During episodes of heavy rainfall, the Gardonnades dug into the riverbed. On two occasions, they swept away the footbridge, which until 1970 was the only bridge in the village. There were three wooden footbridges for pedestrians, which were moored at only one end and were swept back onto the bank by the floods.
Cycling was becoming popular. To avoid punctures, the roads were paved with stones. The Ponts et Chaussées (Bridges and Roads Department) employed young people to remove the pebbles from the river, then the café owner/stone breaker to break them into smaller pieces.
Throughout the seasons, the village saw the passage of the pelharot, a collector of rabbit skins, the cadiéraire, who made and repaired chairs, the estamaire, who melted tin to tin cutlery, and other peddlers of lace, haberdashery and household linen. The doctor travelled on horseback to visit his most distant patients. In order to keep this doctor in the village, the municipal council voted him an annual allowance of 350 francs.
Information taken from "Chemin de mémoires" (Path of Memories), a brochure published by the Cévennes National Park.