LES VILLAGES MORTS: LE GERBAL ET LA CHAUMETTE

On the Causse de Mende, above the town, are two villages which were sold to the State by their last inhabitants in 1905: Gerbal and Chaumette . At this date, there remains one inhabitant at Gerbal and a family at La Chaumette. We are far from the fifteen families who lived here at the beginning of the 19th century. These villages lived from the breeding of sheep and the cultivation of wheat, but from the 16th century, the demand for wool exploded in Europe. The herds became larger and larger and the deforestation of the surfaces intensified and ended up causing, a few centuries later, the exhaustion of the soil. It is therefore very impoverished and washed out land that is ceded to the State so that it can establish the current forest there. Of these villages there remain the ruins of dwellings, with the exception of a set at La Chaumette restored by the ONF in the 1960s. These houses, entirely in limestone, are models of the Caussenard habitat. The main building has two levels: ground floor in housing and the floor dedicated to storage, is accompanied by a sheepfold surmounted by its barn. All of these constructions are made of stone, there is no wood of sufficient quality and size or at too high a cost. There were only two villages on the Causse de Mende because there are only two water sources, which were to be supplemented by several cisterns and "lavognes" (artificial pond to water the cattle).

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