The time of transhumance was and still is the most important moment of the year for the shepherds. Once, in the Occitain language it was "far la Routo": the word "Routo" today gives its name to an ambitious European program that wants to enhance, through 33 stages, for a total of over 400 km of hiking trails, these ancient transhumance routes. It is a physical and intellectual path that goes from the plains of the low Provence up to the alpine valleys of Piedmont, from Arles to Borgo San Dalmazzo. Together with a hiking guide we will go through some of the most beautiful and suggestive stages, with slowness and attention to the signs left over the centuries by transhumant shepherds!
In the first appointment of June 25th we will cover a stretch of the stage that leads from Colle della Maddalena to Bersezio, passing through the magnificent Lakes of Roburent where we will stop to enjoy a breathtaking landscape!
The shepherds, sons of the Alps! Generation after generation, the Piedmontese valleys have provided shepherds to the Provence: at the beginning of the '900 many Piedmontese shepherds were forced to emigrate to France, where they were in great demand! Now established in Provence, many breeders originating in our valleys returned seasonally with flocks: in the early twentieth century, from thirty to forty thousand sheep abandoned each year the plains of Lower Provence to summer in the pastures of the Stura Valley, Maira and Grana. The last flock to rise from the plain of the Crau in the Stura Valley is that of the Balbis, the last transhumant Provençal breeders to harvest in Italy: for more than sixty years the flock of the summer Balbis on both sides of the Frontier, at the Colle della Maddalena, in the mountains of Oronaye (in the municipality of Larche) and Roburent (in the municipality of Argentera).
Cost: 5 € per person, free for children up to 10 years
9 am meetingat Colle della Maddalena parking
Expected return at about 16.30
STARTING POINT: Colle della Maddalena, Argentera.
MINIMUM ALTITUDE: 2.000 mt. S.l.m.
MAXIMUM ALTITUDE: 2,500 mt. S.l.m.
ALTITUDE DIFFERENCE: 550 mt
DEVELOPMENT: 12 km
DURATION: 5 hours
DIFFICULTY: E=Hiking, no technical, exposed or dangerous passages.
PATH: A/R
Info and reservations: ecomuseopastorizia@vallestura.cn.it - www.ecomuseopastorizia.itor +39 0171955555