Photo : Ville de Mende / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Mende
Squeezed into the narrow valley carved by the Lot between the foothills of Mont Lozère and Mont Mimat, Mende, in the Lozère, is a prefecture of unusually modest size, still on the scale of a small mountain town.
The Cathedral of Notre-Dame-et-Saint-Privat, whose two asymmetrical towers dominate the stone-slab and slate roofs of the historic centre, is linked to the legendary Non-Pareille, once one of the largest bells in Christendom before its destruction during the Wars of Religion. The steep lanes of the old town, dotted with remains of ramparts and old fountains, climb from the banks of the Lot towards the wooded slopes that surround the town. A gateway to the Causses and the Cévennes, Mende remains a rural mountain prefecture on a human scale.
