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greolieres |
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THE OLDEST PERCHED
MEDIEVAL VILLAGE
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Greolieres, the oldest perched
village in Provence, has less than 500 inhabitants, just
4 restaurants, a tabac, mini-market and a boulangerie. It's
a sweet place to stroll about, but to really understand the
history of Greolieres you need to walk a further 10 minutes
up the mountain to the ruined old town, now known as Haute
Greolieres. Only the chapel has been restored since it was
left to the elements when the plague came calling. The inhabitants of Greolieres fled the town
and crossed the valley to the village of Cipieres, taking
the disease with them. The survivors who returned vowed
never to live in the old buildings again and rebuilt their
village just a short distance away. Even today most of
the locals still own a few walls among the ruins, but the
decision to leave the old village at rest remains. The commune of Greolieres extends to 5267
hectares and once used to be predominantly farmland. Le
Foulon itself was a farm, with the present building being
the Maison de Maitre, or in other words, the bosses hous.
The farm workers lived just down the valley.
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| Greolieres has less than
500 inhabitants |
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It's difficult to imagine
the forested hills being cultivated, but take a walk and
you'll be stunned at the work that must have gone in
to terrace the land. Massive stone walls are everywhere,
and when you stop to think about how they were built before
the days of mechanical power you begin to picture how tough
life must have been in the mountains.
Despite their efforts farming was not a profitable
business, and with better lines of communication with the
coast it only took a blight year to kill the industry altogether.
Forest took back over and the deer and boar had a bigger
playground once again.
In the village today take a moment at the 9th
century fountain at the entrance to the Barricade; a small
square with a restaurant and pizzeria of the same name, run
by the friendly Corsican Phillipe. Ask him ‘comment
ca va' and you'll get the same reply every time ‘toujours!',
probably a symptom of living in such a beautiful
part of the World. |
Further through the narrow streets
is the Cheiron, a great restaurant with a changing
menu that makes
up in quality what it lacks in choice. Marguerite and Patric,
the husband and wife who own and run the place,and make everyone
feel very welcome - another superb and unpretentious Provencal
restaurant.
The village, at 800m, is dominated by Mount
Cheiron to the north, which rises to over double that at
1778m. This is a beautiful mountain, with a striking ridge
and a face known as Les Miroirs because of the way it reflects
the sun. I have been to few places in the world where the
sky is so blue - I don't know the scientific
reasons for it, just that if you look south the sky is incredibly
blue, but if you look north above the Cheiron the sky is
just about the bluest it can possibly be. It's this
view that first encouraged us to create a mezzanine level
in the top floor rooms - just so we could put roof
windows in and expose this breathtaking panorama - of
course we then had to make sure you got the best vista whilst
laying in bed! |
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| Greolieres makes for a
beautiful sight in the autumn months |
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| If you study the ridge you'll
soon locate 2 aerial masts (which will explain why you've
got such good mobile phone reception up in the mountains)
- the first to the West is known as Cime du Cheiron and the
second
a little to the
East is called Jerusalem; these are the highest points to
our very own ski station, Greolieres Les Neiges, which drops
down
the other side of the mountain. Obviously it's incredibly
far south for a ski resort, but being north facing what snow
it does get stays for quite a while.
What's more the
Department Des Alpes-Maritime (that consists of this whole
South East corner of France and Provence, including the Cote
d'Azur) took over the running of the resort in Jan 2004 which
means investment;
more snow cannons, more runs and like anything council run,
a complete ignorance to the commercial viability! Which is
good news for locals.
The resort is open from Christmas
to March and is great fun for a day or two whatever your
level of competence, and a
great place to learn snow boarding or skiing. What's
more, it's only 15 minutes drive from Le Foulon. Which
is nice.
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