A tour around Villes-sur-Auzon

Villes-sur-Auzon is a village with a little more than 1000 inhabitants, situated in a valley between the Mont Ventoux and the Monts de Vaucluse. In the olden days it was surrounded by walls, which is why the village is round. Today houses have replaced the ramparts, but one of the gates, the 18th century Grand Portail is still there, and vestiges of the old walls can be seen here and there.

Just outside the old centre, not far from the Grand Portail, lies the "Pous di Foro", an area with small gardens surrounded by dry stone walls, watered by a network of gutters which brings water from the nearby fountain. Most of them belong to houses in the centre, and some are still cultivated.

The present-day church and the town hall are both situated outside the old centre.

The village is surrounded by vineyards. To the west there is a forest of pine and chestnut trees in a warmcoloured ochre landscape. On the other side stand the mountains, hollowed out by the occasional wild gully like the "Combe de l'Hermitage" and the spectacular Nesque Gorges, covered with typical Mediterranean vegetation.

1 an old shop front	2 le Grand Portail	3 l'église, le soir
4 the Grand Portail fountain		5 the fountain on the place du 8 Mai
6 la fontaine de l'avenue Jean-Jaurès	7 la rue des Cordiers, dans the ole part of the village	8 in the "Pous di Foro" district

 

9 the town hall (mairie)

The numbers on the map indicate where the pictures were taken.

To help you to get to know villes sur Auzon and its past some information panels have been erected in different places to explain the history of the village and the changes that took place over the centuries.

Click here to download the leaflet describing these infomation panels (in French)

Villes sur Auzon, au pied du Mont Ventoux