The Beautiful Lot Valley in the South of France - Wonderful South of France holidays and active breaks; walking, canal cruising, fishing; French hotels & French campsites

The source of the River Lot is high in Mount Lozère in the Cévennes National Park in the South of France. (This is where you’ll also find the source of the River Tarn). The Lot flows west for nearly 500kms. Its Valley is lush, home to a broad and varied flora and fauna.

An impeccable pedigree for a river that has become synonymous with the protection of its flora, fauna, livelihoods and traditions. In the Cévennes National Park alone, in the highlands of which the River Lot begins its life, there are some 2,250 species of flora and 2,420 reported species of fauna.

The sub-alpine meadows of the highlands shelter peat bogs, marshes, water clover and the carnivorous ‘sundew’ plant known as Drozéra in French. The last natural beech and pine woodlands, on Mont Lozère, play an important role in the forestry management of the Cévennes National Park. The Park is a natural refuge for small animals and insects as well as birds, larger mammals and fish.

Riverside vegetation plays a fundamental role in protecting the ecology of the Lot Valley. It protects the river banks from erosion and, by acting as a barrier between cultivated fields and the river, it safeguards the quality of the water too.

An outing to pick mushrooms or raspberries at the edge of woodlands or forests will reveal the footsteps of roe deer, wild boar, foxes and stags (you can even go to hear the nightly call of the stag during the rutting season). The woodlands are alive with hares, squirrels and weasels, and the sound of buzzards, hawks, common owls and tawny owls. While overhead, whether on the wide plateaux or craggy gorges, vultures and birds of prey hover in the warm currents of air.

The Parc National des Cévennes, the Parc Régional des Volcans d’Auvergne, the Parc Naturel Régional des Causses du Quercy - are but some of the protected expanses of natural parkland that make the Lot Valley such an ideal spot for holidaying.

Among the great and famous, you’ll also find more intimate swathes of protected landscapes - notably the Gévaudan Nature Reserve where wolves live in semi-liberty and the Sainte Eulalie Nature Reserve where the now protected European Bison, ancestor of the world’s bison and subject of many a prehistoric cave painting, also live in semi-liberty.

The Lot Valley: Cherished environment | Changing landscapes | Study is fun