The other day on my ride into the Cévennes I climbed up to the medium-sized Col de l’Asclier, the highest point on my ride at 905m. It’s a long and steady climb and you get views of the pass from far out, which is when I started re-wondering about this construction at the top of it – something I’ve been curious about for well over a decade now.

This is a stone bridge with no road on top of it, although you can see from the signposts that there’s at least one hiking trail up there. It turns out that this bridge is a pont moutonnier (sheep bridge, I guess), purpose built to bring sheep (and goats, I imagine) from the lower elevations to the higher pasturelands of Mont Aigoual (when will I ever remember how to spell this mountain?) and and Mont Lozère.

The bridge, built in 1875, is a strong testament to the importance of transhumance to the area, one of the main reasons that UNESCO bestowed its favor on the Cévennes and France created a national park here – the lives of humans and their bêtes are intricately intertwined here.

And speaking of beasts, the side I descended is a much harder climb, as I recall. Here is old friend Stephen winning the race to the top of it 9 years and 3 bikes ago.