In
the heart of the Alpes
de Haute Provence, Only a step away from the Verdon canyon near the village of Barrême, our training site is situated on a totally isolated 75-hectare plot of land deep in the wilderness. This is an ideal spot for setting off on wonderful sunny walks through fragrant mountains covered with wild lavender. The area you can explore covers 400 km², surrounded by "Route Napoleon" (RN 85), the Verdon canyon and the Valensole plateau (see map). Once densely inhabited, the area has been abandoned for practically a century. As nature always reasserts itself, the original vegetation is growing back, albeit slowly, due to cold winters (at an altitude of 1,000 meters) and dry Mediterranean summers. Deer, boar, foxes and badgers are all plentiful, as are birds and insects, living untouched by pesticides, which miraculously have never reached this remote area. Once extinct, wolves and lynx have now been back for a few years. Box trees (Buxus sempervirens) grow alongside white oak trees (Quercus pubescens), as do maple and lime trees, viburnums (Viburnum lantana) and broom (Genista cinerea). The reddish scotch pine (Pinus sylvestris) appears at higher altitudes, whilst the common beech (Fagus silvatica) and fir (Abies alba) trees grow exclusively on the northern slopes. The Austrian black pine (Pinus nigra) has been planted since the 19th century in order to prevent increasing soil erosion resulting from intensive grazing. The wild peony (Paeonia peregrina) with its large purple flower and the bright orange lily (Lilium pomponium) with its curved petals are some of the remarkable plants also found in the region. Plant fragrances waft down the slopes of the mountain : thyme’s subtle aroma, which varies from area and plant, savoury’s tangy perfume, absinthe’s suave odour, wild lavender’s divine smell - queens of the stony scrublands. Long ago cultivated in large quantities and distilled on the spot for Grasse’s perfume industry, the exceptional quality of the local lavender earned it the official government label AOC (Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée) as the genuine “lavande de Barrême”. Barrême
is easy to reach by train : take the SNCF (www.sncf.fr)
to Digne or to Nice, then the “train des pignes”,
Provence’s railway network (www.trainprovence.com),
from either one of these towns. Situation and access maps to Haut Ourgeas
last update : 2005-06-03 11:03 PM |
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