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Main page Haute Provence

Introduction and Manosque

Riez and Moustiers-Sainte-Marie

Gorges du Verdon

From Castellane to Saint-André-les-Alpes

Train de Pignes (1)

Train de Pignes (2) -Journey

Annot, authentic village

Haute Provence-Col d'Allos-Barcelonette

Entrevaux-Colmars

Col d'Allos-Barcelonnette

Lac de Serre-Ponçon-Sisteron

Montagne de la Lure

Forcalquier

Digne les Bains 

Leaving Colmars, taking the D 908, we drive now to ALLOS, 8km north, at an elevation of 1425 m. The changment of landscape will be total: from a still languishing and listless world to a hard and rogue mountain environment. Just put your arm out of the car window to feel the already cooling air. Don’t worry, it’s not the Himalaya and you don’t need a scarf and gloves, except when winter is near. But admit that you are moved by the majestic landscapes, just at the limit of the parc de Mercantour.

Col d'Allos

We start the climb to the COL D’ALLOS, passing first through LA FOUX D’ALLOS, with the Mont Pelat at our right side. The road is narrow, even intimate, and very popular with bicycle riders having a strong heart, muscles and voluminous lungs.
Numerous brooks thunder down the slopes to join the young Verdon whose sources are west of the col d’Allos, on the flanks of the “Trois Eveches”. At the top---2240 m---we inspire deeply and expire with delectation the pure air and quietness you can’t find anywhere else than at such heights. Half an hour to three quarters of an hour later, after having descended carefully over the hairpin bended road (20 km), we arrive in BARCELONNETTE.
Barcelonnette, squeezed into a narrow glacial valley surrounded by towering peaks and completely Alpine in character, is the northernmost town in Provence. Lying on 1100 m height in the vallée de l’Ubaye, it strikes us with its crystalline atmosphere and an almost fragile silence. Life is not simple here: it can be very cold throughout the year, the valley being enclaved without openings to the outside. Only one big city is within reach: Gap. And when you know that Barcelonette, in the heart of the Ubaye, has 3,500 inhabitants, who represent ¾ of the total valley population, you can guess the problems it can cause.

Mexican folly

The town owns its name to its 12th century rulers, the counts of Barcelona, who founded it in 1231. But the Hispanic connection doesn’t’ end here. In 1821 the three brothers Arnaud emigrated to Mexico out of poverty, looking for the Eldorado. They opened a textile shop there and when they had success they prompted a period of migration for many who would follow their example. More than 5,000 are estimated to have tried their luck. A lot of them made a fortune and returned later to Barcelonnette to show off a bit and built incongruous Mexican-style villas for which the town is famous. 
Today the Mexican connection remains strong, with frequent cultural exchanges and shopsselling Mexican artefacts but a new flavour has emerged to dominate the atmosphere and preoccupations of the town: skiing. From December to April the modern ski resorts of Pra-Loup and Super-Sauze, just south of Barcelonette, pack the Ubaye valley with international tourists and bring a welcome upturn in local fortunes.
Barcelonntte may be the most northern town of Provence, it has a melange of different influences: on the clean place Manuel, the Café de Paris is cleaned with Italian passion, the spic span shopping streets looks like totally Swiss while the avenue de la Liberation runs through a villa park reminding us the “extravaganza” style you can see along the Seine at Bougival. Yes indeed, the “Mexican connection”.
In many ways, the history of Barcelonnette is the history of the Alpes de Haute Provence in a microcosm: poverty, migration, and gradual prosperity. It is an evolution that continues today.

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