Travel Guide The Pompidou

On the border between schist and limestone, at the junction between the highlands of the long winters and the valleys influenced by the Mediterranean, this ridge village was founded at the time of the paréage between the king and the bishop of Mende (1307). At the time, it was a farmhouse belonging to the parish of Saint-Flour. Made up of a few scattered houses, it later grew thanks to the commercial traffic of the Corniche des Cévennes, the road that runs from the lower Languedoc to the Gévaudan. This strategic position attracted the interest of the village's last lord, Laurent Parlier, himself a merchant. In the mid-18th century, he had a manor house built at Le Pompidou, which was later given the title of château. Today, Château Parlier is home to the Cévennes National Park and the town hall.During the Wars of Religion, Le Pompidou, most of which had converted to Protestantism, saw its church destroyed in 1685. It was later rebuilt a little further on in its present form. Then, in 1793, the anti-clericalism of the Convention forced the name of the commune to be changed from the parish name (Saint-Flour-du-Pompidou) to Le Pompidou.A short distance away, on the road to Molezon, we come to Masaribal, a hamlet that belonged to the same seigneury as Le Pompidou. At the entrance to the village, the large square building flanked by four round towers is known as the Château de la Sale du Masaribal.