Highlights

The Étoile de Bessèges is a cycling stage race created in 1971. It is held around Bessèges, and usually ends in Alès, with a time trial at the Hermitage. Run in early February, it traditionally opens the French professional cycling season of stage races.

Every spring, the European Crafts Days are an opportunity to discover craftsmen. Between exceptional open doors of workshops and various exhibitions, they highlight local know-how and talents.

In mid-June, the Transhumance Festival in L’Espérou celebrates the passage of the sheep that join the grazing areas of the high plateaus until mid-October. A 2-day program to discover the traditions around the Transhumance and the sheep.

Every first week of July, the Cratère Surface festival takes over the city center of Alès and the surrounding towns, transforming them into public theater. This street arts festival welcomes several theatrical companies that intervene impromptu on street corners with shows as crazy as they are original.Impertinent, audacious, this street arts festival – one of the only ones to have been created by a National Stage – now enjoys an excellent reputation in France and abroad.

Organized every year in France on the third weekend of September, the European Heritage Days are a privileged moment to discover the local heritage whether it is historical, industrial, artisanal or religious.

Miam is THE big gastronomic event of the region. During four days, the exhibition center of Alès becomes the temple of gastronomy. More than a hundred exhibitors offer tasty products for tasting. Many animations and demonstrations are organized.

Charbon Ardent, which takes place during the first week of December, is the event that celebrates Saint Barbara, patron saint of miners. On the program: exhibitions, balls, shows, musical animations or concerts… This event recalls the mining past of La Grand’Combe and pays tribute to the “black faces”.