3452 FRANCE (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur) - Les Baux-de-Provence

3452 View of Les Baux-de-Provence and its castle from the northwest.

Les Baux-de-Provence is a commune in Southern France, which has a spectacular position in the Alpilles mountains, set atop a rocky outcrop that is crowned with a ruined castle overlooking the plains to the south. Although already inhabited in the Bronze Age, it didn't really start growing until the medieval period, when the area became the stronghold of a feudal domain covering 79 towns and villages. The fortress was built from the 11th to the 13th century. The princes of Baux controlled Provence for many years and they gained a formidable reputation.

2943 FRANCE (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur) - A tower mill in Provence

A tower mill is a type of vertical windmill consisting of a brick or stone tower, on which sits a wooden "cap" or roof, which can rotate to bring the sails into the wind. This rotating cap on a firm masonry base gave tower mills great advantages over earlier post mills, as they could stand much higher, bear larger sails, and thus afford greater reach into the wind. The advantage of the tower mill over the earlier post mill is that it is not necessary to turn the whole mill with all its machinery into the wind; this allows more space for the machinery as well as for storage.

2808 FRANCE (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur / Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes) - The Route Napoléon

The Route Napoléon is the route taken by Napoléon in 1815 on his return from Elba, where he was exiled by the allies of the Sixth Coalition. The route begins at Golfe-Juan, where Napoleon disembarked 1 March 1815, beginning the Hundred Days that ended at Waterloo. The road was inaugurated in 1932 and meanders from the French Riviera north-northwest along the foothills of the Alps. It is marked along the way by statues of the French Imperial Eagle.

2727 FRANCE (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur) / MONACO - Côte d'Azur

The Côte d'Azur (literally: Azure Coast), often known in English as the French Riviera, is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France, also including the sovereign state of Monaco. There is no official boundary, but it is usually considered to extend from the Italian border (Italian Riviera) in the east to Saint-Tropez, Hyères, Toulon, or Cassis in the west. This coastline was one of the first modern resort areas. It began as a winter health resort for the British upper class at the end of the 18th century.

2424 FRANCE (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur) - The circuit of Gorges de Daluis and Gorges du Cians

 

The Gorges de Daluis is a 6km-long canyon in the southeastern France, cut in red sandstone by the river Var, which starts off at the commune of Guillaumes and ends at the small commune of Daluis, where the river widens. This gorge are huge walls (in some places 300m tall), similar to those of the river Cians, but more flared. The tourists can follow the old smugglers' trail, or in the beauty of these landscapes, the marked trails, from village to village.

2336 FRANCE (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur) - Laragne Montéglin

Located at southeastern France, halfway between Grenoble and Marseille, in the perimeter of the Parc Naturel Régional des Baronnies, the commune Laragne Montéglin was born in 1949 from the merger of Laragne and Montéglin. You can discover the old quarters of Cairo and Bourg Reynaud, during a walk starting from the Fountain Square in the heart of the city, close to the door of the Castle and the Church of St. Martin then down to the Mill Quarter, recently renovated.

2251-2253 FRANCE (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur) - Dauphiné Region

2251 - Dauphiné Region

The Dauphiné is a former province in southeastern France, whose area roughly corresponded to that of the present departments of Isère and Drôme, in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, and Hautes-Alpes, in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. In the 12th century, the Count Guigues IV of Albon (c.1095-1142) bore a dolphin on his coat of arms and was nicknamed "le Dauphin" (French for dolphin). His descendants changed their title from Count of Albon to Dauphin of Viennois, and the state took the name of Dauphiné

2252 - The Seven Wonders of Dauphiné (1)

 

Under the Ancien Régime, the province was bordered in the North by the River Rhône which separated the Dauphiné from the Bresse and Bugey. To the east it bordered the Savoy and Piedmont, and to the south the  Comtat Venaissin and Provence. The western border was marked by the Rhône to the south of Lyon. The Dauphiné extended up to what is now the centre of Lyon. It was divided into the High Dauphiné and Low Dauphiné. The historical capital is Grenoble.

2253 - The Seven Wonders of Dauphiné (2)

The Basilica of Our Lady of La Salette is a large, rather austere church, with a facade flanked by two strong towers, built between 1852 and 1865. Outside the basilica is a walking path leading to a site of reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary in 1846, a minor place of pilgrimage. Grande Chartreuse is the head monastery of the Carthusian order, which is supported by the sales of Chartreuse liqueur. Built in the 13th century, the Château du Touvet has a garden à la française classified among the notable gardens of France.

2201 FRANCE (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur) - Orpierre

Only eight km down the road from Eyguians, the little Céans river cuts through a high mountain spine, in a narrow S-bend gorge at the base of high cliffs. The village of Orpierre is built into this narrow gap, and the vestiges of a defensive wall climb the steep northern spine to where the castle once stood. The village has multiple venues for sport climbing nearby.

2075 FRANCE (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur) - Pines on Cape Martin

Cape Martin (French: Cap Martin) is a headland situated in the commune of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, on the Mediterranean Sea coast between Monaco and Menton. Cap-Martin, an affluent residential area of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, was named after the headland, which today is home to luxury villas. The postcard was edited by Les Editions d’Art Yvon, probably in the interwar period.

1970 FRANCE (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur) - Lake Serre-Ponçon

Lake Serre-Ponçon is second largest artificial lake in Europe. It gathers the waters of the Durance and the Ubaye rivers, flowing down through the Hautes-Alpes and the Alpes du Sud to the Rhône River. The waters are dammed by the Barrage de Serre-Ponçon, a 123m high earth core dam, the biggest in Europe, erected between 1955 and 1961. It was created to control water flow after disastrous floods caused severe damage and loss of life in 1843 and 1856.

1931 FRANCE (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur) - Promenade de la Croisette in Cannes

Located on the French Riviera, Cannes is very well known as the host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, but also for its association with the rich and famous, its luxury hotels and restaurants, and for several conferences. An important landmark of the city is the Promenade de la Croisette, which stretches along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea and is about 2 km long, in short, is a waterfront avenue with palm trees and pines, a natural link and sophistication between the beach and the city.

1622 FRANCE (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur) - Aiguines

1622 Aiguines: 1. Gorges du Verdon; 2. Lake of Sainte-Croix;
3. Château d'Aiguines and the Church Saint-Jean.

Between sky and water, in the heart of a wonderful wild natural landscape, the village of Aiguines, situated at the entrance to the Gorges du Verdon, at the foot of Grand Marges (1577m), overlooks the turquoise blue waters of the Lake of Sainte-Croix. The Gorges Du Verdon is often considered to be one of Europe's most beautiful, and also the biggest (50km). The most impressive part lies between the towns of Castellane and Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, where the river has cut a ravine to a depth of 700m through the limestone of Haute Provence plateau. At the end of the canyon, the Verdon River flows into the artificial Lake of Sainte-Croix, formed between 1971 and 1974.

1331 FRANCE (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur) - Château d'If

The Château d'If is a fortress located on the island of If, the smallest island in the Frioul archipelago situated in the Mediterranean Sea about a mile offshore in the Bay of Marseille. It was built in 1524-1531 on the orders of King François I as a defence against attacks from the sea, and was instantly controversial. Marseille had been annexed to France in 1481, but the city retained in theory the right to provide her own defence. The new Château was to many people an unwelcome reminder of royal authority. Although it successfully repelled an attack on the port by Charles V of Spain in 1536, the cannons gradually proved inadequate to reach invading ships, so it became a prison in the mid-16th century. Subsequent inhabitants over the next 200 years included 3,500 Huguenots and a Monsieur de Niozelles who was given six years for failing to take his hat off in the presence of Louis XIV. Others were imprisoned without trial, for minor misdemeanours. The island became famous in the 19th century when Alexandre Dumas used it as a setting for The Count of Monte Cristo.

0673 & 0703 FRANCE (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur) - Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace, Episcopal Ensemble and Avignon Bridge (UNESCO WHS)

Papal Palace in Avignon

Posted on 09.06.2013 and completed on 28.06.2013
Located on the left bank of the Rhône river, a few kilometres above its confluence with the Durance, Avignon was founded by Gauls, becoming then a Phocaean colony, and under the Romans a flourishing city. Ruled by Goths, and then included in the kingdoms of Burgundy and of Arles, it fell into the hands of the Saracens and was destroyed in 737 by the Franks. In 879 it ceased to belong to the Frankish kings, and in 1033 it passed to the Holy Roman Empire. At the end of the 12th century it declared itself an independent republic, but its independence was crushed in 1226 during the crusade against the Albigenses. In 1274, the Comtat became a possession of the popes, with Avignon itself, self-governing, under the overlordship of the Angevin count of Provence. The popes bought Avignon from the Angevin ruler for 80,000 florins in 1348. From then on until the French Revolution (1791), Avignon and the Comtat were papal possessions.

Avignon was one of the important centers of Christianity between 1309 and 1378, when seven successive popes resided here. Following the strife between the Pope Boniface VIII and Philip IV of France, and the death of his successor Benedict XI after only eight months in office, a conclave finally elected Clement V, a Frenchman, as Pope in 1305. Clement declined to move to Rome, remaining in France, and in 1309 moved his court to the papal enclave at Avignon.

Saint Peter Church in Avignon

During the Avignon Papacy the town underwent extensive development, one of the most important building erected in this period being the Palace of the Popes (in the first postcard), an imposing fortress placed to the north and south of the rock of the Doms, partly on the site of the Bishop's Palace. In virtue of its severe architecture, this palace belongs to the Gothic art of the South of France, being one of the largest and most important medieval Gothic buildings in Europe. It is actually made up of two buildings: the old Palais of Benedict XII which sits on the impregnable rock of Doms, and the new Palais of Clement VI, the most extravagant of the Avignon popes.