Saint-Jean-du-Gard ( oc, Sant Joan de Gardonenca) is a

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 ...

in the

Gard Gard () is a department in Southern France, located in the region of Occitanie. It had a population of 748,437 as of 2019;department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

in southern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

History

This city of the

Cévennes , etymology= , photo=Point Sublime-Gorges du Tarn-Frankreich.jpg , photo_caption=The Gorges du Tarn , country= France , subdivision2= , subdivision2_type=Départements , parent= Massif Central , area_km2= , length_km= , length_orient ...

, first mentioned in a 12th-century papal bull (''San Johannis de Gardonnenca cum villa''), was very much influenced by

Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

in the 16th century and became the Mecca of the camisards' resistance. Thanks to the silk industry, the village experienced a period of prosperity that lasted from the 19th century to the 20th century. This city now owes much of its economy to tourism. A

heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

runs from Saint-Jean-du-Gard to

Anduze Anduze (; oc, Andusa) is a commune in the Gard department in southern France.Anduze", Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed., Vol. II, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1878, p. 24 . The village is at the foot of the Cevennes range, in the limestone ...

with a stop at the

Bambouseraie de Prafrance The Bambouseraie de Prafrance (34 hectares, 84 acres) is a private botanical garden specializing in bamboos, located in Générargues, near Anduze, Gard, Languedoc-Roussillon, France. It is open daily in the warmer months; an admission fee is char ...

, which attracts 150,000 tourists a year. The Scottish author

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...

reached the town on 3 October 1878, as recounted in his book ''

Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes ''Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes'' (1879) is one of Robert Louis Stevenson's earliest published works and is considered a pioneering classic of outdoor literature. Background Stevenson was in his late 20s and still dependent on his par ...

''. Here he sold his donkey Modestine, and took a stagecoach to

Alès Alès (; oc, Alès) is a Communes of France, commune in the Gard Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie regions of France, region in southern France. It is one of the Subprefectures in France, su ...

: The Robert Louis Stevenson Trail (GR 70), a popular long-distance path following Stevenson's approximate route, finishes in the town at a fountain built to commemorate Stevenson's arrival.

Geography

Climate

Saint-Jean-du-Gard has a

hot-summer Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

''Csa''). The average annual temperature in Saint-Jean-du-Gard is . The average annual rainfall is with November as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in July, at around , and lowest in January, at around . The highest temperature ever recorded in Saint-Jean-du-Gard was on 28 June 2019; the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 12 February 2012.

Population

References

External links

Official site
Communes of Gard {{Gard-geo-stub