Mont Mouchet is a mountain located on the border of the French

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety ...

s of

Cantal Cantal (; oc, Cantal or ) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France, with its prefecture in Aurillac. Its other principal towns are Saint-Flour (the episcopal see) and Mauriac; its residents are known as Cantalians (fren ...

Haute-Loire Haute-Loire (; oc, Naut Léger or ''Naut Leir''; English: Upper Loire) is a landlocked department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of south-central France. Named after the Loire River, it is surrounded by the departments of Loire, Ardèche, ...

and

Lozère Lozère (; oc, Losera ) is a landlocked department in the region of Occitanie in Southern France, located near the Massif Central, bounded to the northeast by Haute-Loire, to the east by Ardèche, to the south by Gard, to the west by Aveyron, ...

. It is famous for the historical events which took place there, notably during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

where it hosted a group of

French resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

fighters, the

Maquis du Mont Mouchet The Maquis du Mont Mouchet were a group of French resistance fighters during the Second World War that were based at Mont Mouchet. The Germans, having discovered the maquis, made several attacks up until May 1944 with about 3,000 men and using a ...

. At the summit there is a large cairn and view-point (about 3 metres high) from which there is a splendid panoramic view over much of Central France from the Massif Central to the Alps.

The beast of Gévaudan

On the 19 June 1767,

Jean Chastel Jean Chastel (31 March 1708 – 1790) was a farmer and inn-keeper from the province of Gévaudan in France, noted for killing the Beast of Gévaudan on 19 June 1767 at Mont Mouchet. Chastel appeared as a character in the ''Brotherhood of the Wol ...

, accompanied only by his two sons, left to track down the Beast of Gévaudan in the forest of Mont Mouchet. According to Chastel's description, the beast would emerge from the woods onto the track, and sit on its haunches in fright, awaiting an inescapable death.

The beast and the World War II resistance

Historians and other researchers on the beast of Gévaudan have often been taken by the parallel between the story of the beast and that of the French resistance. The fact that 3,000 Nazi soldiers in the search for dissidents were not able to find 2,700 maquis fighters surrounding the Mont Mouchet forest where two centuries earlier, three men had tracked down the beast, tends to support the conspiracy theory that Chastel himself was involved in the massacres, attributed to the beast, which took place in

Gévaudan Gévaudan (; oc, Gavaudan, Gevaudan) is a historical area of France in Lozère ''département''. It took its name from the Gabali, a Gallic tribe subordinate to the Arverni. History After the conquest of Gaul, the Romans preserved the c ...

at this time.

Tourist locations

* Near to the summit of Mont Mouchet in the

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

of Auvers, is a memorial to the resistance alongside a museum of the Haut Gévaudan maquisards. MontMouchet1

Quotes

General Charles de Gaulle, 5 June 1955

External links

*
History
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mouchet Mountains of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Mountains of Lozère