The Cèze rises on the southern flank of Mont Lozère and runs south-east through the Gard schist until it finally gives up and joins the Rhône below Bagnols. For most of its length it is exactly the kind of river you hope to find in this part of France and then discover is still largely ignored — dark schist pools, fast shallow runs, wild brown trout holding under the oaks, and the whole thing framed by the quiet Cévennes that tourists mostly drive past to get to the Pont du Gard. Fish it early in the season or write the summer off. The Cévennes gets proper Mediterranean weather — the rain arrives in biblical quantities in autumn and then almost nothing for three months — so by late June the middle Cèze is often a string of pools joined by dry gravel. The productive window is March to early June, before the heat takes hold. Standard Cévennes kit: a short rod, fine tippet, and a handful of hawthorn and Baetis dries for the honest hatches that arrive when everything lines up. After the first September rains the trout wake up again and October can be as good as May.

• Schist