Down roads of silk
From the 16th to the 19th centuries, our region was the cradle of a silk industry whose fame went far beyond our borders.
In the big silk mills, the industry was at its height in 1752.
But then silkworm nosema disease (pebrine), the opening of the Suez canal, and the appearance of synthetic materials, all struck a death-blow to silk production in the Cevennes.
The last silk mill closed down in 1965 at Saint-Jean-du-Gard.
It is here, at the foot of the Cevennes, in a remote little village, that the history of the silkworm was written, on the blackboard of the village school.
Thanks to the passionate enthusiasm of the teacher at that time, the children and then the entire village started raising silkworms afresh. They were the pioneer of the rebirth of silk making in the Cevennes.
Today terraces, silkworm-rearing houses, mills and mulberry bushes are all part of the landscape.
Today, the great couturiers have acknowledged the extraordinary quality of Cevennes silk.
And today you can follow the silk making process from the ground all the way to the finished material, and you will understand the past, the lives of the people today, and you might imagine what tomorrow will be like.
That story is told at the Silk Museum (Musée de la Soie) at St Hyppolyte du Fort: silk-worm raising and the discovery of making fabrics.
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