Hiking

The setting of an adventure novel

We are a long way from the feeling of terror that seized the Scottish writer when he arrived at La Trappe! He stayed there on September 26, 1878 and, from this stay, drew three chapters – that is to say the impression that the place made on him! Here is essentially what he wrote:

“I was not far off when the wind brought me the ringing of a bell, and I do not know why, my heart, at this sound, was seized with anguish. I have rarely experienced a terror deeper than ‘as I approached the monastery of Our Lady of the Snows. At a bend, fear gripped me from head to toe – a superstitious fear that I could not control. I kept walking, but I moved slowly like a man who would have crossed a border marker without suspecting it and would find himself lost in the city of the dead. There, on a narrow new road, between two rows of young fir trees, I saw a monk with a medieval appearance, who a wheelbarrow full of grass. He was dressed in white like all ghosts; and in the effort he was making to push his wheelbarrow, his hood had fallen back, revealing a skull which looked like ivory, yellow as a skull.”If Stevenson, a Protestant by confession, undertook this journey in search of a faith drawing part of its roots from the history of the Camisards, today the motivations of hikers are very different!

As many reasons to do the Stevenson as there are hikers

On foot, on horseback, by mountain bike, as a family with a donkey, on a few sections or in its entirety, from a simple sporting challenge to the need for escape, a return to nature, a desire to meet people or to taste solitude and indulge in the contemplation of picturesque landscapes, there are as many reasons to do the Stevenson as there are hikers!

But once past the enclosure of the abbey, everyone finds themselves in a place out of time, where modern life and fashions have no longer taken hold. The few monks still present perpetuate a way of life whose rules were enacted in the 6th century in Italy by Saint-Benoît. The Cistercian Order of Strict Observance, also called “Trappist”, is a contemplative religious order of the Roman Catholic Church.

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Eight nuns expected at Notre-Dame des Neiges

Belonging to the great Cistercian family, whose origins date back to 1098, the Trappists live according to the Rule of Saint Benedict and are also part of the Benedictine family. Founded by the Abbey of Aiguebelle in 1852, the Trappe of Notre-Dame des Neiges remains a spiritual high place, 1,100 meters above sea level, nestled in the woods of the austere Ardèche mountain, a stone’s throw from La Bastide, in Lozère and Saint-Laurent-les-Bains, in Ardèche. Originally, the monks settled at Mas de la Felgère, an old farmhouse of which nothing remains. This contemplative order, which dedicates its life to silence, solitude and work, counted up to 46 religious in 1852.

Two years later, the construction of a new monastery began and was completed in 1861. In 1912, a fire reduced it to ashes. It was rebuilt in two years. For the anecdote, it will be recalled that another fire damaged the Abbey of Notre-Dame des Neiges in 2010. Some 80 firefighters had been dispatched to put it out, from Ardèche, Lozère and Haute-Loire, strong in about thirty machines. About 500 m² of building were destroyed. In the neighboring building, the monks continued their prayers during the intervention.

Snow Flower

Between vigils and compline, the religious have long been busy working in the fields, at the sawmill and in the cellars where mass wine was made from vines planted in the south of France, at Bellegarde.

The table wines and the famous sparkling wine well known as “Fleur des Neiges” have made the reputation and the beautiful days of the abbey! If since 2006, the wine is no longer produced on site, it can still be found in the shop, which is always very busy.

But this summer, hikers very nearly found doors closed at the Maison de Zachée… The whole Ardèche mountain and well beyond was moved by the news of the monks’ departure. A decision taken on Christmas Eve “unanimously and in a consented act of faith, although the soul bruised, to put an end to their community life, by September”, in the words of Father Abbot Dom Hugues Chaplain of Seréville, putting an end to a long history of 170 years on the Ardèche mountain. 8 in number, including 3 novices, elderly, they can no longer maintain a place that has become too big for them.

The Abbey of Notre-Dame des Neiges will close its doors

At that time the question of the site’s future arose, but the Cistercian presence on this austere and isolated land was not going to disappear. Eight Cistercian sisters from the Sainte-Marie de Boulaur abbey will take possession of the monastery of Saint-Laurent-les-Bains in September. This community of nuns arrived in the Gers in 1949, in the ancient Fontevrist abbey of the 12th century. They are now 32 sisters, aged 25 to 94, living from their organic farm.So of course, the reception of hikers was turned upside down: it finally opened on March 29, “a little late”, we concede to the shop, because reservations start in January.

It is no longer Brother Frédéric, who welcomes walkers to the House of Zacchaeus, he has already left to live in another religious community. And the accommodation capacity has been reviewed: 12 rooms are open to the 37 beds in the accommodation which operates on the principle of donativo.

The path of Stevenson victim of his success!

In one of them, Barbara expected to return to Stevenson on Wednesday at 6 a.m. the next day. The ascent of Mont Lozère which will allow him to switch to the Cévennes already sounds like a promise of enchantment – Like the passage to another world made of shale and chestnut forests plunging towards the rivers – this country of the Camisards so dear to the Stevenson’s heart.

Nathalie Courtial