Provence Blog by ProvenceBeyond

Sainte Agnes village photos addes

We've added a bunch of new photos for the Alpes-Maritimes village of Sainte Agnes. Perched on a narrow saddle of a mountain overlooking the Mediterranean near Menton, Sainte Agnes is the "highest coastal village in Europe".

Chateauneuf-Grasse, Alpes-Maritimes

 We've also added the Alpes-Maritimes village of Chateauneuf-Grasse to Beyond. A medieval village sitting on a hilltop overlooking the smaller village of Opio, Chateauneuf got it's name in the 12th century as the Chateau Neuf (the new castle) of Opio. A century later, Chateauneuf split off from its mother commune to become its own commune.

Opio village, Alpes-Maritimes

We've added the Alpes-Maritimes village of Opio to Beyond. Opio is known mostly for the great golf course, the Club Med and the ancient olive-oil mill, Moulin de la Brague. Located to the east of Grasse and north of Cannes, the village is a very tiny little place on a low hill overlooking the golf course and all the rest.

Courmes village is online

We've added the tiny village of Courmes to Beyond. Located in the Gorges-du-Loup, near Grasse and Vence in the Alpes-Maritimes, the wee mountain-side village of Courmes is in a beautiful setting, and is a great place for hiking.
The GR51 Balcony of the Côte d'Azur hiking trail passes through Courmes.

Gorges du Loup High Trails, Low Planes

A beautifully sunny pre-spring day in the Alpes-Maritimes yesterday. We hiked from the village of Courmes (overlooking the Gorges du Loup) up over the side of the mountain to the plains above (about 1000 m) to visit the Champs des Idols (aka Village Negre) and return via Saint Barnabé on the GR51 trail.
    The peaceful mountain hike was disturbed somewhat by the sound of a pair of "Tracker" anti-forest-fire aircraft doing some very-low-level training in the hills around us. On a few occassions one of them would fly down the valley and pass very low through the Gorges du Loup; quite spectacular to see from our perche above them.
The chapel at Saint Barnabé was "protected" by the cat seen in our second photo here. A small dog followed us into the village, until this cat appeared. Hardly afraid of dogs, the rather small cat did some mock attacks on the dog, until the bewildered canine finally quit the field of battle.
    A good 5-hour hike with great scenery, good trails, a sore knee and tired legs at the end.

Wolves near Montélimar and Valence

Wolves in Provence are mainly in the Mercantour National Park or in the Pyrenées in the southwest [map].

In March 2009 wolves were sited or did actual damage in the Drôme department, near Montélimar and Crest [area map, detail map].

Sitings or sheep damage occured at the communes of Marsanne (15 km northeast of Montelimar), Pont-de-Barret (25 km northeast of Montelimar; 15 km south of Crest) and Aouste-sur-Sye (3 km southeast of Crest, on the Drome). Having wolves down on the plains west of the mountains is unusual, but not completely new. The previous December the body of a 38 kg wolf was found on the edges of Valence [area map, NE].

Calanques National Park

The Calanques are destined to become the Parc National es Calanques in 2011. It will be France's 8th national park, and the first national park of Europe in a pre-urban zone — at the edge of Marseille.

The Calanques, along with the Marine Park of Iroise in Brittany, are the first French metropolitan national parks to be created since 1979. The Calanques will be the first national park following a law of 2006 that allows local communal groups to have a say in creating the park and in the maintenance of the park.

Hiking GR51 Menton to Sainte Agnes

We've added a hiking page for the GR51 section from Menton to Ste Agnes. The trail from Menton is really the GR52, but it's the GR51 that arrives at Castellar and continues via Monti to Saint Agnes. Included are photos of parts of the hike with interesting views and trail decisions.
   February - March is a good time to be hiking. Excepting days of rain (to be avoided), blue skies and bright sun is tempered with cool air in the southeast of France. The pre-Springtime air is theoretically clear, except that it's the season of pruning olive trees and there's a lot of smoke from burning the branches.

Uphill from Menton to Eagles

Last week we got an early-season start to our planned GR51 hike across the South of France. Starting at the Menton-Garavan railway station, just east of central Menton, we hiked the GR52 trail up the side of the mountain for two hours from the station (20 m altitude) to Plan du Lion (720 m) and the beginning of the GR 51 trail.

A pair of golden eagles were hunting the valley to the west of us for most of the time we trudged upward, sometimes below our level and sometimes much higher. At the top we got a long-distance shot of one of them high above.

Eyguières village online in Beyond

We've just added Eyguières to Beyond, a medieval village at the end of the Alpilles mountains in the Bouches-du-Rhône of Southern France, between St Remy-de-Provence and Salon-de-Provence.

We visited on an overcast day with a cold, winter Mistral blowing, but still enjoyed our visit.

Just north of the village is the 12th-century Chateau de la Reine Jeanne, shown in our photo here.