Mountain refuge Gîte de Bréau

Discrete step and practical function. Gîte de Bréau , in Brau-Mars, it is located at a low level for pirenaic standards, about 370 meters, within the Cévennes sector and in the surroundings of the Aigoual massif. The nearby relief does not respond to the scheme of great alpine refuge, but to that of a transition area between inhabited slopes, forests and rounded saws that are gaining height towards heights such as Puech Loubier or Serre de la Labagne. This position makes it, above all, a cross-border support and not so much an isolated mountain destination.

Link between itineraries and changing terrain

His interest is in the road network that passes through this Gard sector. This way they fit signposted long and half-way routes like the GR 7 , GR 66 , GR 71 or GR 60 , in addition to local routes linking L'Espérou, Le Vigan or Saint-Maurice-Navacelles. This gives it meaning as an intermediate point for dividing days, reorganizing a journey or solving a stage in an area where the land can quickly change between valley bases, tracks, hillside trails and more open sections.

Before we have this shelter in support, it is appropriate to put forward the logistics well. There are several relatively close sources and the closest ones appear at just over 300 meters, a useful data in a passing area, although it is always worth verifying their actual availability according to the time. Beyond that, the available practical information is limited, so it is reasonable to arrive with sufficient autonomy and without taking for granted specific equipment.

The approach, being linked to a core such as Brau-Mars and a dense network of roads, does not transmit the isolation of a crest or glacier circus shelter. Even so, mountain use continues to depend on basic decisions: water, meteorology, continuity of the chosen route and reading of the land in a region where distances may seem moderate on the map but are extended as they link valleys and dorsal.

In that context, Gîte de Bréau It fits better as a simple support shelter for hiking trails along the Cévennes than as a basis for ascension. Its value is in the position, in the connection with several itineraries and in providing a useful reference within a half-mountain landscape with quite mobility between sectors.