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This very beautiful medieval village hanging onto vertical cliffs overlooking the Siagne is definitely worth making a detour. St Cézaire sur Siagne sits on a rocky spur in an idyllic landscape of wooded hills, with views of the Maures and Estérel.
It's a site that has attracted people since Neolithic times, inhabited from the 9th century by the monks of Lérins, who cultivated the land and educated the population, a stronghold during the Middle Ages of the Esclapon family, followed by the Villeneuve and Grasse families. For many centuries Saint Cézaire sur Siagne's local economy
flourished, with its many mills producing wheat, olive oil, and even paper in the 19th century.
If you like old buildings, you're bound to enjoy a visit to the medieval village: remnants of town walls dating back to the 14th century, a beautiful church built from pink stone, lintel doors and wash-houses, tiled roofs and covered passageways, shady little squares and fountains, not forgetting the superb Fontaine aux mulets …
Carry on walking right to the end of the village, to admire an authentic Romanesque chapel, with its twinkling grey stone that has withstood the passage of Time so well. And throughout you are accompanied by this dazzling view of an unforgettable panorama, that you can explore from the orientation table … a bowl of intoxicating fresh air that blows away all the stress of modern urban life!
Beneath the municipality of Saint Cézaire lie a large number of caves and sinkholes. The Saint-Cézaire caves have been open to visitors since the beginning of the 20th century, and in 1920 a film with Charles Vanel was even shot there.
For thousands of years, water has eroded, polished, carved and eaten away at the limestone rock, giving rise to some fantastic concretions and formations that will seem even more spectactular if you attend one of the "son et lumière" shows that are given during the summer! |