Saint-Veran

Saint-Veran sits between about two thousand and two thousand and forty metres in the Queyras, generally called the highest permanently inhabited village in France, and the buildings answer the altitude: houses combine a stone lower floor for people and animals with a timber upper structure of stacked larch logs open to the air, used to dry hay and grain in a short season. Carved wooden crosses stand along the street and sundials are painted on facades. The climate is dry and very sunny, which is why an astronomical observatory was built above the village at nearly three thousand metres.

History

Copper was mined within the commune in the Bronze Age at a scale of some seven tons a year, a mass production for its time, and timbers from the Galerie des Anciens have been dated to approximately 2300-1750 BCE; the old Tranchée des Anciens can still be seen. By legend, Saint Véran, a bishop of Cavaillon born in the 6th century, wounded a dragon ravaging his region and ordered it to die in the Alps, its blood falling where other villages named Saint-Vérand now stand. Much of the population was Protestant, as the village temple and the Bible verses carved above doorways show, and the village lived by crafts such as basketry, toolmaking, cabinet-making and carpentry, by farming and by slate cut from galleries in the cliffs. In 1925 the village was chosen for reconstruction at the International Exhibition of White Coal in Grenoble, and at Christmas 1937 the Pré du Géant ski lift opened, the skiers carried from their hotels by horse-drawn sleigh; skiing here was revived in 1952 (Wikipedia, Saint-Véran).

What you'll find

• The larch hay lofts - open timber upper storeys above stone ground floors.
• The mission crosses - carved wooden crosses along the village street.
• The painted sundials - dials on house fronts through the Queyras.
• The observatory - an astronomical station on the ridge above.

When to go

July to September for walking and January to March for cross-country skiing; the village is high, cold and can be snowbound between. The road up the Queyras is long and winding.

Good to know

At two thousand metres the air is thin and nights are cold even in July. The village is small with limited services and cars are restricted. Access roads can close in winter storms.

Nearby

The Queyras regional park surrounds it; Guillestre lies down the valley.

Key facts