The village in the sky

The origin of Tourtour’s name is the ancient word tör meaning summit

You might well think Tourtour was named after its towers: the two attached to its privately-owned 12th century château, the four belonging to the renovated 17th century château, in which, appropriately, the Tourist Office is housed, or even the two towers depicted on the coat of arms of the La Tour family, local nobility in the time of Louis XIV. A logical assumption, but wrong. The little village took its name from the ancient word ‘tör’, meaning summit, of which it has two: the medieval château and the Romanesque Church of St. Denis.

‘Summit-Summit’, then, is perched at 635m altitude, looking out on a panorama that stretches over to Fréjus and the Mediterranean Sea in the east and all the way to Mont Sainte-Victoire near Aix-en-Provence in the west. Such a lofty location made it a choice site in the Middle Ages, as it was wise to have a clear view of anyone coming.
Nowadays, with flocks of visitors taking the road that loops up to Tourtour, the local population of 600 multiplies several times in the summer and parking can be a problem.

The biggest car park is at the village entrance, around St Denis church, an austere place of worship that was built in the 11th century, officially declared a ruin in 1906 and then restored in suitably sober fashion in 1939.
From there, it is just a short stroll past the four towers of the younger of the two village châteaux: this one has had its nearly four centuries of history hidden by an over-enthus-iastic facelift that makes it almost unrecognisable as a historic building. The main square, the Place des Ormeaux, is abuzz with cafés and restaurants, and marks the entrance to the old centre of Tourtour, which has the medieval château at its heart. Owned by a talented and outspoken Belgian artist, Marie-Ange Gerodez, it serves as both her art gallery and home. It is the second of Tourtour’s summits, built on a rock covered in greenery, from which the village spirals out in concentric circles, each one marking a different epoch, like one of the ammonites displayed in its exceptional Fossil Museum.

Just steps away from the château, the Musée des Fossiles is the late-in-life’s work of Victor Zaneboni, a joiner-carpenter from Corsica, who became fascinated by the fossils found in the region around Tourtour, when he settled here in the 1970s. Over time, he built up a unique collection of ammonites, which date back to the time of the dinosaurs, from 200 to 65 million years ago. Among them are several giant, very rare, uncoiled specimens. Victor also collected dinosaur eggs, fossilized oysters, sea urchins and horseshoe crabs, as well as lithophysae, or ‘thundereggs’, which are hollow rock nodules with beautiful crystal formations in their centre.

Right across from the museum stands one of the last traditional olive mills still in operation. European Union regulations have replaced the folklore of days gone by, when olives were crushed between granite millstones, then packed into coconut fibre mats, called scourtins, to be pressed by man, donkey or waterpower, with the golden-green oil being decanted from the water on which it floated. Now it is all hygienic, hydraulic presses and stainless steel centrifuges – except in Tourtour. There, the old olive mill is still driven by water, and the oil produced, which cannot be sold because of EU rules, is simply given back to the people who bring their olives to be crushed.

In the months when there are no olives, the mill is rented out as an exhibition space to local artists and sculptors.
Among Tourtour’s other attractions are two gastronomic restaurants: the one-star Les Chênes Verts, where the walls are covered with humorous sketches by English cartoonist Ronald Searle, who is a Tourtour resident and regular client, and La Table, an intimate setting serving inventive, all fresh cuisine.

If you have children, you should visit Tourtour at Easter, when there is a village-wide Egg Fête (in 2010 it will celebrate its 20th edition) or sign them up for a Donkey hike, with the Kiffez l’âne association.
For young and old, the village in the sky dishes up a giant aioli on the first Sunday in August, followed by a ball, where garlic fumes and good cheer fight for supremacy.

For further details, contact the Tourist Office.
Tel: 04 94 70 59 47 – their website seems to have crash-landed for the time being.          Ester Laushway