Wild France with Ray Mears (2016): Season 1, Episode 4 - Cevennes - full transcript

[accordion music]

[Ray Mears] France... for many of us,
that means tourist attractions,

busy streets, and stylish cafés.

But head deeper into the country,

and you'll discover a France
that's wild and unchanged.

I really love France.

It's a naturalist's dream.

And the reason for that

is all the different habitats
that you find here.

In this series,
I'm going to explore them

in search of the many hidden wonders



that there are to be found
in Wild France.

I'll be traveling to some
of the most spectacular regions of France,

from the snow-capped mountains

to the rolling plains.

From deep forest...

to the rugged coastline.

I'll be exploring
the unique plants and wildlife

that thrive in this unspoilt wilderness,

and the secrets that are hidden
deep within it...

That's amazing.

On my adventure through Wild France.

When I was, a child there was a movie
called The Land That time Forgot,

and, well, if there's one part of France
that you could describe in that way,

it has to be this.



This is the Cevennes.

It's an incredibly rugged landscape
with hardly any people.

This is the least populated region
of France,

and for naturalists,
it's a hidden treasure trove.

I can't wait to explore it.

The Cevennes is situated
in central southern France.

It covers
nearly 3,000 square kilometers,

but it's sparsely populated

with only 64,000 inhabitants
actually living here.

It's a place so wild that you are
far more aware of the animal inhabitants

than the human ones.

My journey will take me
from the high limestone plateau

down into the silent wooded valleys
of the interior.

I'll be discovering the predators

that have roamed this land
for hundreds of years.

Robert Louis Stevenson,
the great British novelist, came here.

In fact, he wrote a lovely book

about trekking
through the Cevennes with donkeys,

and it could well be
that this was the landscape

that inspired his greatest work,
Treasure Island.

Certainly, I like to think so.

There's a brooding stillness here

that lingers in the rocky outcrops
and green forests of the Cevennes.

It's a feeling that is heightened
by haunting signs of the past.

This is the plateau
right on top of the Cevennes,

and it's a fascinating landscape.

Bigger fields here,

and there are
these mysterious standing stones,

these megaliths.

Not much is known about them.

What we do know
is they're made of granite,

and they were moved here
from several kilometers away,

so it was an awful lot of work,
as some of them weigh several tons.

So they must have been important
to the people who put them here.

One of the biggest mysteries
about these stones

is their location high up on the plateau,
where not much grows.

One suggestion is
that in the early Stone Age,

people would have gathered here to hunt.

Bones have been found here

from woolly-haired mammals,
wild horses, and hyenas.

But any bones scattered
across the landscape these days

are cleared up by the giant scavengers
who swoop through the skies.

When I set up to use a scope,

there are a couple of things
that are really important.

Firstly, I need to be comfortable.

If I'm sliding off a hillside,
it's going to be really awkward,

and that interferes with what you see.

And the second is the scope needs
to be set so that you're not stooping,

you're not reaching,
because that's very tiring.

It has to be just right.

If you get those two things right,
you can relax and be comfortable.

Then you really start
to see what's there.

Ah, that's great. Look at this.

Some great vulture action here.

This is a griffon vulture.

They're so graceful, slow flying,

really slow wing beats.

That's wonderful.

With a wingspan of nearly three meters,
they can cover vast distances in no time.

And their eyesight is so good,

they can see a dead rabbit
on the ground three kilometers away.

Even with the scope, they can see me
much better than I can see them.

Constant Bagnolini is an ornithologist

who's been working
with the vultures for twenty-five years.

[Ray] So I'm looking here.
I think these are griffin vultures, yes?

[Constant] Yes.

Thirty years ago,
the vulture completely disappeared.

The sky is empty of the vulture.

Why did the original birds disappear?

The vulture disappeared
principally by the fault of human.

By gun and poison.

The poison is not for the vulture,
it's for the fox.

But the poison is not selective,
and the vulture disappeared very quickly.

And I assume now that the poisoning
of foxes is controlled?

Now in my area in my country,
it's forbidden.

It's totally forbidden.

[Ray] With vultures coming home
to the Cevennes,

the ecosystem is slowly returning
to an older way of life.

There are now four types of vulture,
including 450 pairs of griffon vultures,

twenty pairs of black vultures,

and also very rare Egyptian
and bearded species.

The griffin vulture
and the black vulture we introduce.

The Egyptian vulture return naturally,
just two breeding pair.

It's not much, but it's a great success.

[Ray] You'd think these different types
of vultures would compete for food,

but actually each vulture eats
a different part of the dead animal.

The griffin vulture prefers the soft meat
like muscle, intestine.

The black vulture prefers the contrary,

the hard part like cartilage, skin.

The Egyptian vulture
can clean all the rest.

A lot of people who haven't
perhaps taken the time to look

might think the vulture is an ugly bird,

but I think you really love the vulture.

Yes, the vulture is very, very beautiful.

It's very beautiful.

[Ray] I think all... all species that have
difficulties in nature need a champion.

[Constant] Yes.

[speaking French]

[Constant laughs]

Merci. Thank you very much.

[Ray] The vultures have
successfully been reintroduced,

but there's another predator
making a comeback,

one that's crossed the border
all the way from Italy,

making its way west to the Cevennes.

One even the vultures
daren't get too close to.

Wild wolves were hunted to extinction
in France by the 1930s,

but in the last twenty years,
they have started to return on their own.

This wolf park was started so that
scientists could study pack behavior

and to help refamiliarize people
with this feared predator.

Audrey Prucca is a zoologist
who studies the wolves' feeding patterns.

How many wolves have you got here?

In this enclosure, by now thirty.

[Ray] Do you see any pack behavior
when you're feeding them like this?

[Audrey] At the beginning, they are
a little bit afraid because of the car,

and then the alpha female
can go immediately and eat,

and then other wolf, they can eat.

[Ray] So he's got some there,
he's taking it in the shade.

Wolves hunt in packs
so they can target larger prey.

They usually attack by seizing
their victim by the nose or the rump.

They have strong jaws

which help them crush the bones
and get the soft marrow inside.

The muscle and flesh is
the last part of the prey that's eaten.

They're incredibly intelligent animals.

When I look at wolves,
they have this eyesight that's different

to just any other animal I've seen.

They have this ability
to look right inside you,

to investigate you with their eyes.

It's... It's quite unique.

As well as the wolves living
within this protected reserve,

there are now thought to be seven pairs
of wild wolves living in the Cevennes.

Conservationists are keen for them
to stay and grow in number,

but some locals believe
that they are a menace

and that they will prey on livestock.

The hierarchy here is clear.

Once the wolves are fed,
it's time for the birds to swoop in.

And already we've got ravens,
and we've got a magpie there,

and the vultures coming down.

To see wolves and vultures
living together here so successfully

perhaps provides us a glimpse

of the future of the ecosystem
of the Cevennes.

Wonderful sight,

but an incredibly complicated
political future for the wolf,

and very interesting
to see what's going on here.

[tires rolling]

As I get deeper into the landscape,
I get a sense of how remote this area is.

You can travel a long way here

before you come
across another human being.

[rain spattering]

The roads here are really windy
and very tiring,

so it's good to stop occasionally,

and as you can see, the terrain
is very dramatic and so is the weather.

This is what in weather terms
would be called a Cévenol episode,

the mixing of Atlantic
and Mediterranean weather fronts.

The result of that is tremendous storms.

And one of the features
of the storms here

is a very fast downpour
of a large amount of rain,

and in steep terrain like that,
it runs straight off

and can cause massive flooding
miles away, way down stream.

It's also a challenging terrain
to live and to farm.

As a consequence, you see
lots of terracing put in by local people.

But they do benefit from
the incredible humidity that you get here,

humid conditions that are perfect
for the growing of all sorts of things.

This area may be uninhabited by humans,

but there's a whole secret city
tucked away if you know where to look.

These unusual-looking houses
are actually beehives.

Right, put the protective gear on.

OK, that's good.

Excellent.

Now we can work with the bees.

I'm sure there's no problem, but it's
always wise to take some precautions.

Is it fetching?

Ah, yes, very good.

I'm meeting local beekeeper Yves Laurent.

Yves keeps bees in a traditional way
that is unique to the Cevennes.

The hives are made from
all-natural resources found in the area.

The base is carved from a tree trunk,

and schist rock is put on the top
to protect them from the elements.

[Ray]
The smoke makes them a little groggy.

I'm going to look in underneath now.

Ahh, look at that.

You can see there
the combs hanging down underneath,

and that's exactly how bees prepare
their comb and their honey in the wild.

They look for a hollow in a tree,

an old bird's nest, woodpecker's nest,

and prepare galleries just like that.

It's completely
as it's intended to be in nature.

In summer, there are over 30,000 bees
living in these hives.

[speaking French]

It's very beautiful.

Merci.

These are European black bees.

Whilst other bees around the world
are dwindling in numbers,

surprisingly the bees in the Cevennes
are doing very well.

It's thought
that one of the reasons for this

is because there is no intensive farming
in this protected region,

and, therefore, no pesticides
that are harmful to bees.

This age-old method of beekeeping...

Using local trees and resources...

Has been passed down
through generations of beekeepers.

[speaking French]

So basically you learned the technique
from an old man

who was one of the last practitioners
of this method.

And today you are passing it on,

and you've taught people in England,
Scotland, Germany.

And I like what you say,

that it's an ancient technique
for the future.

- C'est trés bon.
- Exactement.

- [speaking French]
- Ah, oui.

[speaking French]

So this is the honey from here.

[speaking French]

From last year, yep.

Last summer. Yeah.

Let's try a little bit of this.

Oh, it smells lovely.

I can smell les herbes.

Oui.

That is wonderful, formidable.

[speaking French]

The true...

The true honey of the bee.

Oui.

[speaking French]

[speaking French]

Totally natural honey.
You can't get better than that.

- Merci.
- Encore.

Again. I'm going to have some more.
Why not?

[chirping]

[Ray] This whole region
has a magical feel to it,

and there's a final habitat
I'm keen to explore further,

the real heart of the Cevennes...
The forest.

One thing you notice
as you travel deeper into the forest

is that it's very rocky underfoot.

And this rocky landscape
is hard for trees to colonize.

But there is one tree
that does flourish here.

From the acidic soil beneath the schist
grows the sweet chestnut tree.

Laurent Fossar
is a local chestnut farmer.

His family have grown chestnuts here
for generations,

and he's going to show me
how he works with these wonderful trees.

[Laurent speaking French]

[Ray]
A wild chestnut, this one.

[speaking French]

So this wild chestnut
has grown really straight,

and the wood's strong
and good for making beams of houses.

But you don't eat...
[speaking French]

[speaking French]

[Ray]
So it's because it's difficult to open?

[Laurent] Très difficile.

[laughs] That's interesting,
so you basic...

You graft varieties
to make them easier to open?

It makes a lot of sense.

- Can I see that?
- Oui. [Speaks French]

[Ray] Grafting new shoots onto strong,
wild trees makes the perfect fruit.

[Laurent speaks French]

[Ray] Grafting
usually takes place in early spring.

A healthy shoot is removed from one tree

and a slit is made
in the trunk of a second tree.

- Comme ca?
- Voilà. Très bien.

[Ray]
And the shoot is spliced in.

So the young, fresh shoot of one tree
starts to grow

from the sturdy trunk of the wild tree,
merging the two together.

[Laurent speaking French]

[Ray] And in ten years,
you'll have beautiful chestnuts.

And so that's what happened to this tree
hundreds of years ago?

[Laurent] Voilà.

[speaking French]

[Ray] This is an old tree,
350 to 400 years old. Definitely, yeah.

[speaking French]

So it's been grafted,
and this line you can see in the bark...

I'écorce...
This is where the tree was grafted.

[Laurent] Voilà.

[Ray] You can still
clearly see these grafting marks,

and Laurent tells that me that there's
an interesting local tale surrounding it.

[Laurent speaking French]

So this was done by shepherds
who were bored

while they were waiting,
watching their sheep,

and they took their knives

and they grafted their favorite
chestnut shoots on to a wild tree.

[Laurent] Voilà.

[knife sawing]

[Ray]
Grown here since Roman times,

the chestnut tree has become
an iconic symbol of the region.

It's known locally as the bread tree

because it gave this remote region
everything they needed to survive.

They made flour from it,
ate the chestnuts, and built with it.

So we're ready to do some cooking here.

I've been given permission to light
a fire here in the woods,

so I'm going to put these chestnuts,
or châtaignes, to good use

and cook up a local speciality...
chestnut soup.

Over the fire it goes. Fantastic.

So basically here they've
got various varieties of châtaignes.

The names are...

- Qu'est que...
- Pellegrin.

Pellegrin.

- Figurate.
- Fugurate.

- Dauphine.
- And dauphine, the prince.

[Ray] And seeing how these chestnuts
play such big part of life in the Cevennes

has been the jewel in the crown.

A great way to end my journey.

The soup's coming close
to being completed,

and we're going to have
a real chestnut feast here.

We've got this wonderful baguette
made from chestnut flour,

and saucisson made from wild boar,

which, of course, fatten themselves
absolutely beautifully

on the fallen chestnuts from
the wild chestnuts, which aren't eaten.

- [speaking French]
- [speaking French]

A little bit of milk.

[Laurent] Voilà. Très bien.

[Ray]
Now mix it, it's ready to eat.

[Laurent speaking French]

Is that the name of dish?

- Bajana.
- Bajana.

- Bajana.
- Bajana.

Let's try some.

Very nice.

I feel I've discovered a truly unspoilt
world here in the Cevennes.

This really is one
of France's best kept secrets.

[music playing]