Gourdon    - Most beautiful villages of France | France -
[18/05/2006]

Description : The origins of the Village are lost in the mists of time. At the most moved back times, this insulated rock was employed like defense and place of refuge. The Romans had already occupied the area. There exists, indeed, to 1,5 km in Western North, a camp strengthened with double enclosure and oppidum. Such as it is presented at our eyes, Gourdon gives a perfect idea of the Feudal Village. It is built on a peak whose formidable slopes that, after several hundred falls and fall, stop with the river of the Wolf (rivière du loup).
The castle constitutes one of the great characteristics of Gourdon. It is opened to the visitors since 1950, and is classified in the French Historic Monuments since 1971.

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Saint-Agnès    - Most beautiful villages of France | France -
[18/05/2006]

Description : A particularly interesting place to see in Saint-Agnes: the Saint-Agnès fort.
This monument was built between 1932 and 1938 and keep in the strongest artillery power of the Maginot line. Hung to the side of a peak to 780 m in overhang of the Menton Bay, Saint-Agnès is always equipped with its artillery armament. Many installations remain in operating condition.

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Les-Baux-de-Provence    - Most beautiful villages of France | France -
[18/05/2006]

Description : Several caves, the rock of the Baux dominates of the inhospitable marshes and control the passage of the Alpilles. Initially a refuge place, then a monitoring one, the Baux constitutes a true eyrie from the time, always inhabited and coveted.
Many traces testify to a very old human presence: vestiges of the "Caves of the Fairies" (Grottes des fées), Oppidium de Bringasses, Celtic cemetery of the Vayède Collar and sculpture of Trémaïe.

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Gassin    - Most beautiful villages of France | France -
[18/05/2006]

Description : Rock headland far from 4 km of the shore, the old village of Gassin, with its tortuous alleys and its old picturesque houses, dominates a landscape of vineyards, wooded extents and the Gulf of Saint-Tropez. From the medieval terrace of the "Barri" (ramparts), Gassin offers a single landscape which extends from the islands of Hyères to the snow-covered summits of the Alps while passing by the massif des Maures.
Ancien oppidum Celto Ligure, the village became starting from XIe century a religious stronghold (St. Lawrence vaults).

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Ansouis    - Most beautiful villages of France | France -
[18/05/2006]

Description : Built in the shelter of the Mistral, Ansouis is a Lubéron village that offer vain lanes where you will find shops and craftsmen.
By trotting you through Ansouis, you will not be able to miss the place of the village and will take pleasure to impregnate this environment of Provence near the coffee terrace under the shade of the plane trees.

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Perouges    - Most beautiful villages of France | France -
[18/05/2006]

Description : On its hill, Pérouges is a typical city of the Middle Age. Town of craftsmen where no lord reigned forever, the culture and the weaving of the fabric were the two resources of its inhabitants who, since 1236, had communal franknesses.
You will not find rich person vestiges, but a whole with non similar aspect like the houses more modest craftsmen, give to its streets to the unequal paving stones, this so picturesque aspect.

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Mirmande    - Most beautiful villages of France | France -
[18/05/2006]

Description : At the XVIII century, Mirmande will preserve a lord until the revolution. the XX century sees the abandonment and the collapse partial of the St Foy church. In addition a exonerating law for taxes of the without roof houses, many owners make discover the roofs and the become houses of the ruins are repurchased at the price of the tiles.

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Sainte-Croix-en-Jarez    - Most beautiful villages of France | France -
[18/05/2006]

Description : Located on the first buttresses of the Pilat mount, allong a green small valley, the village of Holy-Cross-in-Jarez is almost entire enclosed in the remarkably preserved buildings of old Chartreuse built there starting from the XIIIème century.

A community of monks, according to the rule of Saint Bruno, lived in this monastery until 1792. On this date the monks were driven out by the revolutionists and the buildings, become national property, were sold on biddings and were bought by families of peasants from the neighbourhoods who lived there. The monastery became a village and remained about intact more than two hundred years after its changing destinate.

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