Destinations Menu
RSS
FRANCE | Western Côte d’Azur, France Travel Guide
Wednesday, November 27, 2024
5 Of 5
Le Pays de Fayence
Le Pays de Fayence
North of the Estérel, in Saint Raphaël’s arrière pays, a group of villages perchées, known collectively as the Pays de Fayence, clings to the tops of the highest hills.
Fayence, Seillans, Mons, Callian, Tourrettes, Montauroux and Saint Paul en Forêt are all tiny medieval villages with tall, narrow houses hanging over lanes that are sometimes barely an arm span across. Streets are cobbled, many paved with river-smoothed stones set in flights of stairs, called calades. In the oldest and highest parts of the villages, ancient archways carry the higher lanes over those below. Houses form vaults over the ruelles that pass below.
For thousands of years, these naturally fortified places with their panoramic views of the distant coast and countryside, provided refuge andsafety from invaders, plagues, pirates and warring factions. The so-called “Saracen Gate” in Fayence is evidence of just one of the perceived threats to the medieval population of the town. Here and there in the villages there are remains of prehistoric and Celto-Ligurian fortresses.
Elsewhere in Provence, villagers moved down into valleys when the ages of plague and warfare passed. Vaison la Romaine and Oppède in the Luberon (with abandoned Oppède le Vieux above it) are examples.
Here, however, this cluster of villages is one of several you will come across in the Côte d’Azur where the upper village has always remained occupied. Maybe the inhabitants liked the great views.
It is possible that the Pays de Fayence has kept so much of its medieval character because, at one time, the region was among the poorest in France. But fortunes were made in mimosa growing on the Tanneron hills in the early 20th century, followed closely by the growth of tourism.
Last updated March 15, 2012
Posted in France | Western Côte d’Azur
Explore the Destination
Amenities and Resources
Overview
Hotels(78)
Restaurants(36)
Attractions(23)
Activities(44)
Map 
Weather Forecast
- Reported on:
Wed, 11/27/2024 - 22:00
- Reported on:
Trending Themes:
Guides to Popular Ski Resorts
-
Ischgl is a small mountain village turned hip ski resort, with massive appeal among the party-hearty young crowds. It is... Read More
-
Andorra la Vella is its own little world, and not just because it’s a 290-square-mile independent principality (a fifth the... Read More
-
Bariloche (officially San Carlos de Bariloche) is the place to be seen. It is to Argentina what Aspen is to the... Read More
-
Aspen is America's most famous ski resort. And that's an understatement. For, as a ski complex, Aspen is unsurpassed. Its... Read More
-
Zermatt is a small but glamorous mountain resort town, with a population of approximately 5,700. It is one of Switzerland's... Read More
-
St. Moritz is a glitzy, alpine resort town in the celebrated Engadin Valley of Switzerland, with huge notoriety as the... Read More
-
Lake Tahoe is the premier lake resort of America, and the largest alpine lake in all of North America. It is an absolutely... Read More
-
St. Anton, Sankt Anton am Arlberg in German, is Austria's premier ski-bum resort! It's actually a small village cum... Read More
-
Kitzbühel, a small, Tyrolian resort town in the Kitzbüheler Alps, comes with international renown and huge snob appeal, and... Read More