From Tinée Valley to Roure

Climatically, the village of Roure (1104 m) above Saint-Sauveur-sur-Tinée (500 m) has a beneficial location. The south facing mountain side between the two villages has plenty of sunshine, and terraces have been built during centuries to cultivate figs, olives, walnuts and chestnuts.

Some parts of the GR5 trail from Saint-Sauveur-sur-Tinée to Roure date from Roman times. In 1927 a cable car for agricultural purposes linked the two villages, but it was as late as in 1935 that a road reached Roure.

We started ascending from Saint-Sauveur-sur-Tinée from signpost 170. We crossed the Tinée River along an ancient Roman bridge following the familiar white and red GR markings. We crossed the M30 road several times. Seen from the starting point, the slope between the villages looked rather steep, but the good trail zigzagged nicely making the ascent quite easy. We walked past signposts #232, 234, 235, 237 and 238, respectively. In the old times Roure was famous for its production of dried figs, but nowadays we didn’t see any trace of cultivation except some olive trees. The landscape by the trail certainly proved that there’s a microclimate. In front of one hut, we saw a palm tree at almost 800 m! Approaching the village, we passed the first houses, many of them built with slate roofs, typical of this region.

We walked past the church and climbed to the viewing point (belvedere du Castel; 1104 m) just above the village. From here, we had a great view of the verdant Tinée Valley, the still snow-capped mountains, and Saint-Sauveur-sur-Tinée 600 m below us.

We descended back to our starting point along the same trail. It is also possible to fork right at signpost #235 on the way down and descend to River Vionène, a Tinée tributary, and continue back to Saint-Sauveur-sur-Tinée along this smaller path.

Hiking time: 3h 15