After the Col Saint Martin at 1500 meters, we changed valleys, leaving Vésubie for Tinée. The first village we encounter is Saint Dalmas. The Sainte Croix church from the year 1000 and the local heritage museum await your visit, provided you have reserved by phone at 04 93 23 25 90.
One can discover the tools and trades of yesteryear there. It’s a not so distant past that deserves to be rediscovered by the younger generation. The cemetery is adjacent to the church. Saint Dalmas was once fortified, and you enter the main street through a postern.
You will discover successively: the penitents’ chapel from 1659, old houses with exposed stones, the street passes beneath, and if you pay close attention, you can decipher an ancient milestone with inscriptions in Latin and an engraved jar. This milestone embedded in the house may indicate a former wine or oil trade. The term “Bene” suggests a connection to Bacchus’ beverage. The school facade and its turret await us at the top of the village, where an oratory seems abandoned.
According to the villagers, it was never consecrated. Having completed our visit to this village, we will descend to La Roche, the second Valdeblore. There, we go through fields, it smells pleasantly of hay and manure. The path is very easy and pleasant. You may encounter sheep, goats that are never shy and come to greet you, or horses training for Auteuil. A donkey brays his joy of living and approaches, seeking a crust. A word of advice, bring something to satisfy our countryside and valley friends. A bell tower, that of the Chapel of Mercy or the black penitents, dominates La Roche.
At the village’s exit, an uninformed visitor, unaware of historical peculiarities, might be puzzled by a sign: “Route of the former border”. It should be noted here for comprehension that Mollières and the Bolline valley were Italian before 1947.
Arriving at La Bolline, one will admire the town hall school and the war memorial where Mollières is rightly associated with La Roche. The third Valdeblore also has two churches: Saint Jacques with its colonnaded porch and the white penitents. Unfortunately, in all three villages, the churches are often closed. But this does not detract from the interest of the visit, and one can, for example, admire the facade of the Valdeblore hotel with its polychrome frieze. A small stream, which gave its name to the third village, flows down towards the Tinée. A garden has been arranged to wait for one’s bus, and one can see an old grain mill whose wheel has disappeared. A tame little donkey, perhaps the former turnstile attendant, grazes under the watchful eyes of two authoritative geese.
The sun disappears while the sky pales before blazing, it’s time, the bus will soon go back up to Colmiane and take you back to Nice via Saint Martin.
Thierry Jan
