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An attentive geographical survey of the rather steep hills constituting the eastern facade of the French Central Massif from Vienne to Tournon overhanging the corridor valley of the Rhône tends to show that slope steepness is essentially due to the tectonic interplay and to the deepness of the hydrographie network of the Rhone's right bank. The frequent use of terraced parcels which nowadays have been more or less abandoned is accounted for by the steepness of the hillsides. Hence the aim of this paper is to offer a comprehensive morpho-anthropic classification of the hills comprising hillsides and precipitous gorges which were never worked upon, terraced hillsides either halfcultivated or completely cultivated, hillsides being urbanized or progressively destroyed (quarries, motorways cutlings). Thus it is suggested that an effort should be made to preserve these terraced hillsides for this country-side, resulting from past toil, constitutes a valuable element of our regional and national patrimony.

In two different geological regions of Ardeche (Massif Central), farmers built terraced fields to domesticate the steep slopes. On the Gras Plateau of Chomerac the viticultural hillsides have been abandoned since the 1870 phylloxeric crisis. In the Boutières region, terraced fields have been left to abandon since the 2nd World War. To save these man-made landscapes, they should be inserted into a new planning policy for sloping areas.

The past landscape of the Saint-Savin-Saint-Chef hills (Terres Froides du Bas-Dauphiné) was composed of a land-unit mosaic (vine-arbours and cut vines, meadows, tilled acres, chestnut-groves, copses) consistent with the ecological constraints of the time. The dereliction of the hills, the spreading of fallows entails a lass of landscape legibility. It is proposed to take into account these relict landscape units in an environment policy.

The hills of the Bas-Dauphiné region, noteworthy for their steep slopes and valleys, have been favoured rural areas in a context of traditional economies. Having been left to abandon for some thirty years, they are now reoccupied by newly-built houses, in the best-exposed sites close to the villages.

The Côtière (hill) of the Ain river is an example of local vineyards where the producers have not succeeded in making good wines easy to sell. With the new technical and economical bases of present agricultural activity, the culture of the vine passed away. Some years ago, the area was left to run wild. It is now involved in a renewal with the migrations of Lyon towards surrounding country.

A concerted land use and land renewal operation has been undertaken since 1974 in the western Jura, in order to develop a guaranteed vintage vineyard (A.O.C. Chateau-Chalon) situated on forsaken steep slopes. The requested regrouping of plots saved a scheduled beauty spot and was all the easier as it was at first applied to fallow lands. The first results show that in 1981 the vinyards are expanding. Moreover a similar regrouping of plots has been asked for in other rural districts of the Jura wine-growing region, in conjunction with requests froms potential young farmerand and an increasing interest in the production of quality wines.