Two picturesque villages,
the vast ocher massif of the Estérel,
and other modest strolls
1- Set back from the coast, two picturesque villages
Despite the undeniable attractiveness of the coast, the congestion of its boulevards, the density of shops all geared towards mass tourism tire quite quickly, even in the current health context.
We therefore embark on a visit to two remote villages, chosen according to their degree of picturesque and which each illustrate the history of the country, Roquebrune-sur-Argens and Fayence.
We will avoid that of Puget-sur-Argens, neighbor of Roquebrune, because of the total lack of attraction felt when we crossed it somewhat by chance.
Roquebrune-sur-Argens
One, about 9 km as the crow flies west of Fréjus, but which has access to the sea (with Les Issambres), is therefore that of Roquebrune-sur-Argens .
The old center winds in a very characteristic way in three concentric semicircular streets lined with houses tightened around the top of the hill and the Church of St Peter and St Paul, which dominates the valley of the Argens 50 meters. .
In the axis of the access road, in the distance to the west, an isolated massif, high and stocky, all in red sandstone, overlooks the east-west motorway and dominates the wide valley with its 373 meters. It is the Rocher de Roquebrune.
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The formation of Rock of Roquebrune date of primary era around -420 million years ago, at the time of Gondwana .
For nearly 100 million years, marine sediments accumulate which form here in particular the plain of Argens. Then folds first create the Massif des Maures to the west, then that of Rocher de Roquebrune and the Massif de l'Estérel.
Even a hasty visit to the historic village reveals some very pleasant nooks and crannies, which deserve much more attention.
The fountain-washhouse near the arcades on the paved floor, the sharpness of the restoration of the old stone walls, the wink of an enormous tap which must symbolize the scarcity, and therefore the value of water, so many pleasant assets under a very pure sky.
Place Alfred Perrin
Place Alfred Perrin
The territory of Roquebrune-sur-Argens was crossed by a Roman road, probably the famous Voie Aurélienne. A milestone testifies to this (it measured Roman miles; 1 Roman mile = 1481 meters).
At the top of Pétignon is founded the first village, a little to the west of the current site, between the 8th and the 11th century, under the name Latin by Rocca Bruna in reference to the Rocher de Roquebrune which we lean against from the south.
In 973 , William I , Count of Provence, drives out the Buckwheat present here for over a century.
The priory held by the Saint-Victor abbey of Marseille is probably founded in 9th century in the area just north known as Palayson .
the Council of Vienna , convened by the Pope Clement V enters October 1311 and May 1312 decides the excommunication of Templars; there's some left at the southern entrance to the village, in an exterior wall of the Saint-Pierre chapel, the body of a member of the Order, upside down.
In the 14th century, the lord of Roquebrune, previously rallied to the county of Provence, submitted to his adversary Louis II of Anjou in 1388 and obtained a “chapter of peace”.
The village spends all Middle Ages without suffering from invaders or epidemics like the black plague .
The construction of the parish church, this time on the very top of the current hill, was completed in 1535.
In the 15th, the village extends; it was around 1540 that were created the "high square" arcades.
When peace returned, the village developed in the 17th century, mainly around polyculture.
With the construction of the Pont d'Argens in 1829 which made it possible to reach the so-called " Italian road", then, in 1863, the arrival of the railway, viticulture in particular developed, then tourism.
Fayence
The other village, directly north of Fréjus from which it is about 22 km as the crow flies, a little to the west of Lake St-Cassien, overlooks a vast valley on the edge of higher mountains.
Proudly dominating the site, it can be seen at a distance from the top of its 380 meters, 150 meters above the valley.
It is Fayence , whose white fringe extends further east with the hilltop village of Tourettes.
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The slope is steep to reach the summit and its platform against a bell tower.
The historic part is gathered around the summit, the slope of which is much steeper than in Roquebrune.
But from there, the panorama over the diversity of the round tiled roofs is superb, over the valley and the Château du Puy à Tourettes.
A little further down, a belvedere balcony offers superb views over the valley. Narrow streets, passages under arched doorways (like the town hall building which spans the street) follow one another.
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Extract from Petit Futé :
" A native of Tourrettes, General Alexandre Fabre, one of the first polytechnicians in France, was sent by Napoleon to Tsar Alexander I to trace the roads of the Russian Empire. On his return, he had this castle built, the replica loyal, they say, to the Saint Petersburg cadet school ... Somewhat fallen into ruins since then, it was restored in 1970 and resold in apartments ... "It is a private domain that cannot be visited .
comme un paysage toscan ; au loin l'aérodrome, point de départ de vols à voile très réputés
le campanile au sommet de la tour ronde de l'Horloge
avec ici comme un air de ruelle... provençale
comme un paysage toscan ; au loin l'aérodrome, point de départ de vols à voile très réputés
The site is already well known to the Romans where they created the city of Favienta Loca ("pleasant place").
Fayence depends on 794 of the bishopric of Fréjus; distant from the sea, it is the place resort and rest for its bishops. Later, they own a castle here; the one that my lord of Fleury - future cardinal and Minister of Finance - destroyed in 1710 , deeming it "unnecessary and expensive" (1) .
Patronymic convergences, thanks to a factory of earthenware , the city is repopulated in particular by inhabitants of Callian (a hilltop village just to the east), after its destruction by the terrible and bellicose Raimond de Turenne in 1391 .
During the wars of religion, Fayence receives on October 18 1590 mission to "raze, demolish and bring down" the castle of Tourrettes, the small neighboring town, which served as a refuge for carcists .
From 1782, the seigneury rights were bought back from the Bishop of Fréjus. Fayence becomes a free commune and its only lord is therefore the king.
The vicissitudes of the French Revolution , in which the commune of Fayence participates very actively "and sometimes in a bloody way".
(1) However, next to the Clock Tower at the top of the hill, one end of the keep is exposed among the rocks.
2- The Massif de l'Estérel, our superb and modest Far West, to the east
L'Estérel, first and short contact, just to whet your appetite.
Its slopes of oaks and pines, sometimes eucalyptus, its high rocks, whose summit is Mont Vinaigre, can be traveled by car (but also on foot, by bike ...), especially here from Agay.
Already, the massif spreads out from the village and over the roofs its surprising colors of the Far West.
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Rhyolite mainly makes up the Massif. This clear and pinkish volcanic rock, dating back to 290 million years, gives over hundreds of millions of years this beautiful bright ocher coloring under the oblique sun.
Its genesis is 'much younger' than that of the Massif des Maures in the west, made of granite and gneiss formed between -600 and -430 million years ago. Older and duller massif ...
Going up the road that follows the small river Agay, we veer to the right to climb the slope a little and enter the Estérel park, via the rue de Gratadis.
The map below comes from the " OpenStreetMap " site.
Over several courses of dozens of kilometers, the road winds along the flared valley of the Petit Grenouillet, climbs in switchbacks sometimes in hairpin bends towards the east.
The paved balcony road makes a final loop towards the most northeastern summit, sometimes a little dizzying, and where the imposed one-way avoids having to fear impossible crossings.
Agay
Mont Vinaigre
Bear Peak
Peak of Cap Roux
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The tops fairly rounded and the slightly steep slopes bristle with a few isolated rocks in the middle of the scrub and forests of short oaks and maritime pines.
They compose beautiful and vast panoramas on the bluish background of the most distant reliefs to the west, crisscrossed by white tracks.
Beautiful landscapes which lack a little of the breath of real wide open spaces, those of which we keep the shocking memory in the North American West .
The road passes at one point in the shade of a high almost damp cliff, which conceals the cave of the hermit St Honnorat (also known as Ste-Baume; nothing to do with the massif of the same name, a beautiful promontory in east of Marseille), and at the top of which stands the Pic du Cap Roux.
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A few hairpin bends higher towards the northeast, here is the summit of Pic de l'Ours, which would be (because here again the opinions do not converge) the 2nd highest summit of the Massif after Mont Vinaigre.
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High belvederes allow you to contemplate at leisure, in silence, under the dazzling horizon somewhere towards the east, the coastal urban fringes and the winding course of the railway whose route sometimes takes tunnels, cutting short behind sumptuous residences on the red cliff.
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The opinions are unanimous: the bypass on the sea which bypasses the massif from the east to the southwest, closely following the serpentine and tortured outline of the coast, which the railway line doubles as straight as possible, is a marvel, beside which the Massif seems almost dull. And which deserves its nickname of "Corniche d'Or".
Of course, the ledge will be precisely the route that will be missing from our stay ...
However, the Massif remains a majestic and quite unequaled recreational area.
This cushy first contact (by car only) in any case opens the appetite for very beautiful and rich subsequent hikes, if the intention is not made inclined and that at the foot of the wall, the calves and the breath follow.
3- Strolls and other curiosities
Urban herds, and very bold heads
In a parking lot in the Massif, here is, unexpectedly, a wild boar, which does not flee at our approach but moves away peacefully and infiltrates the bushes of the maquis.
Perhaps a female, to see the care with which she maintains her delicate pointed hooves and her very shiny bristles.
One of them even comes to visit us one evening, and walks unhurriedly in front of the small terrace on the ground floor of the bungalow.
Always protected with a ban on feeding them, they proliferate, there as elsewhere, in search of easy food near homes.
In front of the bungalow of our accommodation, the dry soil is plowed by the tusks (lower canines) of these nocturnal animals which must seek worms and roots there.
So much so that here, the municipality of Fréjus plans to bring back the rounds of dumpsters from the early morning to the night before, to avoid the shattered bags and the bins devastated by the clothes.
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By the way too, another all-metal animal this time, silent and mobile, weird, with eyes everywhere:, THE Google car that collects its "street view" images in the traffic flow of St-Raphaël.
Little to say about the agglomeration of St-Raphaël, which merges with that of Fréjus in the immediate vicinity.
But a somewhat pleasant impression, that of a fairly dense tourist population which lets the horde prejudge that it becomes in normal times and a coastal zone separated into two north-south parts by the railroad, an obstacle that cannot be crossed by car only through a narrow and inconvenient tunnel.
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To return to the bipod animal, riding a two-wheeler or moving around on the mobile seat of its motor vehicle, here are some who visit two local curiosities of their own creation, the chapel N.-D. of Jerusalem known as "Jean Cocteau chapel" and the pagoda of Buddhist worship, in Fréjus.
The Cocteau chapel
From a road north of Fréjus, by a 500-meter white path very precisely forbidden to cars, where only our steps creak and the tires of other groups' bikes slip, peaceful between spaced oaks and pines, here is the Notre- chapel. Lady of Jerusalem.
The building, modest but harmonious, although of Venetian and Roman inspiration, is of a perfectly original architecture: an octagon surrounded by an external gallery running behind arcades.
It is a sanctuary for the Order of the Holy Sepulcher, whose truncated cross covers the building.
Long in love with the Coast, towards the end of his life, Jean Cocteau was asked to decorate this monument of which Martinon, a banker from Nice, was the initiator and the promoter.
But on 10/11/1963, a few months after the start of the works in February, Cocteau died, the same day as his friend Edith Piaf. Her former lover, who became her spiritual son, Edouard Dermit, commissioned the frescoes he had imagined, as well as the decorative ensemble. Everything will be completed in 1965.
The artist marked this work much more than its promoter; we only remember the first one here.
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Inside, the contrast is remarkable between on the one hand the windows, the stained glass doors and the floor paved with brightly colored earthenware, and on the other hand the 8 sections of the walls decorated with works prepared by Jean Cocteau for the 'building.
Mainly scenes from the Passion of Christ, with a "people" touch which features in the representation of the Last Supper, some celebrities of the 60s (Coco Chanel, the inevitable Jean Marais, the author himself, ...) in the cursive, elegant, faux-naive and vigorous style of the master's perfectly recognizable designs.
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Cocteau himself
Jean Marais
Coco Chanel
may be
Raymond Radiguet?
Edward
Dermatitis
Max Jacob
may be
Georges Auric?
may be
Darius Milhaud?
The pagoda of Fréjus
In the same part of the north of Fréjus, the eye is suddenly surprised and attracted by brightly colored statues between glimpsed through a beautiful wooded hill which surmounts a frequented crossroads.
It is the pagoda of Fréjus.
It is the oldest in France, erected on the initiative of military officers in 1917 next to the Gallieni military camp where Indochinese infantrymen were waiting to be deployed.
Then abandoned until after the 2nd World War, and falling into ruin, it was taken over by Vietnamese refugees from 1954.
We find there, with this respectable kitsch, colorful representations specific to this religion-philosophy, the entire spectacular array of statues of the Buddha, his disciples, his history, and a bestiary of statues added there more recently.
Marlène seems to get lost in it ...
All in harmony, however, the small park of beautiful umbrella pines, thick cypresses playing with yews, old cork oaks and a few olive trees, invites contemplation.
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No stupa , but a catch-all which lacks unity when one has known, for example in Sri Lanka, the perfect serenity which is required of itself in this type of place of worship; a particular variation of the Vietnamese variant of Buddhism?
We only manage to find this feeling of serenity by "isolating" a few perspectives, by separating in the spirit such a row of statues or such group of representations.
The reclining Buddha, glittering with gold, is a striking example of this.
Obviously, this sanctuary, which has the ambition to bringing together so many objects lacks breathing, and therefore above all space, but remains a very original place.
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kitsch bouddhique, quand tu nous tiens...
un caniche joueur
un enfant très studieux
kitsch bouddhique, quand tu nous tiens...