The ideal time to visit Lucéram is in December when the charming medieval town, perched on its rocky promontory, is decked out in Christmas colors. Trees and illuminations lend the streets a magical atmosphere, enhanced by the nativity scenes scattered throughout the village.
This is what they said one day in this small village, and today, nearly 40,000 walkers and curious visitors have visited the small town in the hinterland, one of the precious treasures of the former County of Nice. And all these visitors had a primary goal: to visit the Nativity Circuit, which now enjoys international fame! Yes, because the people of Lucéram embraced this circuit, imagined about fifteen years ago, and each winter more of them create stables and nativity figures by hand.
Perched on a rocky spur, 25 km from Nice, Lucéram carefully preserves the traces of its history and its culturally rich area. Since Christmas 1998, the Maison de Pays of Lucéram and Haut Paillon, in collaboration with associations and the inhabitants of the Commune, has organized a “nativity circuit” in the village. The tradition is now entrenched.
Thousands of visitors wander through the village alleys and the Peïra-Cava station to discover the crèches.
For two months, Lucéram experiences a rare bustle.
Of all ages, nationalities, and sometimes even different religious denominations, the crèches unite people. They bring people together.
A WONDERFUL VISIT
Visitors are delighted by their discoveries.
An unforgettable spectacle awaits their eyes. They walk through the transformed alleys, adorned with a multitude of green branches decorated with knots and balls in the colors of Lucéram: red and gold, all in perfect harmony.
MORE THAN 400 TRADITIONAL NATIVITY SCENES
From the smallest in half a walnut shell to the large one measuring 10 meters long, over 400 nativity scenes are displayed in the streets, cellars, on fountains, under archways, at the Church, the tower, chapels, the bread oven, the Nativity Scene Museum, the Old Tools Museum, at the Maison de Pays/ Office of Tourism, at the Placette, with merchants, at the Val Del Prat mill, and at Peïra-Cava, Turini, Camp d’Argent.
The volunteers of the Maison de Pays have a pleasant surprise for visitors who discover the Nativity Scene Museum at the Placette.
THE NATIVITY SCENE MUSEUM
Created by the volunteers of the Maison de Pays de Lucéram and Haut Paillon Association, the nativity scene museum, located at the Placette, presents more than one hundred and fifty works.
In this authentic apartment with small vaulted rooms, the nativity scenes range from the humble to the prestigious. This is how one discovers animated, Provençal, fabric, matchstick crèches, etc.
The nativity figures are created from various materials; baked clay, the noble earth of Provence, is unanimous. But visitors also discover quite unusual nativity figures: knitted, made from clothespins, wood, fabric, gourds seeds, wrought iron, and even chocolate.
The nativity scenes of the World attract attention: Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Peru, Bolivia, Europe…
You will discover, among others: the superb Neapolitan nativity scene, the smallest displayed in an authentic cabinet, the “gourds” wall, the nativity scene made with 33,000 matchsticks, the oldest nativity scene dating back to 1948.
