geography
The landscape of the Haute Loire has been formed principally by those two great forces of nature - fire and water. Tectonic activity in the Paleozoic - some 350 million years ago - provided the backdrop to "recent" volcanic activity which ended about 600,000 years ago.
With an average altitude of 800m - only 4% of the department is under 500m - and culminating with the Mont de Mezenc at 1753m the Haute Loire is definitely "haute" and these highlands are drained by some 700 natural waterways extending to over 3500km and giving birth to the Loire and the Allier.
geology
The Haute Loire is made up of two distinct geological areas - The basaltic "western Velay" and the basin of "Le Puy" which profits from a micro-climate that one does not find elsewhere. The Western Velay is a kind of large planèze (volcanic plateau) which is made up of the broken remainders of more than 150 volcanos giving the Haute loire its distinctive landscape. These "sucs" often topped with pines are sometimes laid out in rectilinear peaks (Devès: 1.423 m), sometimes grouped in solid masses (Durande 1,299m), and sometimes insulated (Tartas: 1.343 m). There are also several large lakes such as the "Lac du Bouchet" occupying ancient volcano craters.
geography
To in the west, the mountains of Margeride form a high barrier of granitic and metamorphic rocks: this barrier which is responsible for the dry and sunny climate of the Haute Loire due to the "Foehn effect". les hautes terres de la zone médiane sont les plus complexes. To the South of thec "col de Fix" (1112 mètres), the "chaîne du Devès" (1421 mètres) aligns like guards volcanic hillocks with gentle slopes. Whilst to the North, and around Allègre is the last volcanic cone of "mont Bar" (1175 mètres), a granite plinth manifesting itself in the "haut plateau" of La Chaise Dieu. This area with an average altitude of 1000m is wild and cold in Winter,more so than the Margeride. To the East one sees the same duality between mountain and valley, peak and gorge. Around Lignon, the "hauts plateaux" of the Eastern Velay, bordered to the South of the Tracol (1 030 mètres), by the chain of the Boutières, which leads to the Cevennes.
sources : Conseil Général Haute Loire - Vallee de la loire - Wikipedia -
