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 Le
Muy is located at the meeting point of two
large forested mountain ranges which have
evocative names : LES
MAURES and L’ESTEREL.
The
river ARGENS flows between them.
Discovering
these ranges born ages ago and shaped by
nature and man is tantamount to travelling
in a time machine.
When
vacationing at Le Muy, you will not miss the
opportunity to discover these last two
jewels of the French Riviera and their
amaranthine-red rocks, their emerald-green
vegetation, their sapphire-blue sea and
their cloudless skies.
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 Squeezed
between the Tanneron range which,
together with the Maures mountains
forms the crystalline part of
Provence, and the deep-blue
Mediterranean, the ESTEREL is about
20 miles (30km) in length. It
stretches between the gorges of the
Endre river and the sea-side resort
of Mandelieu.
The
landscape you see today is what is
left of millions of years of intense
volcanic activity.These mountains
have been pushed, submerged, and
sculpted by erosion into an endless
lacework of peerless red.They form a
thankless, inhospitable almost
barren piece of land and probably
owe their name to the Latin word for
" sterile ".A kinder version claims
that, in ancient times, they were
named after the fairy " ESTELLE ".
The
Romans themselves gave up trying to
cross the range directly.
The
VIA AURELIA, which linked Rome to
Fréjus - an Imperial Prefecture at
the time - forked when it met the
Esterel. It then continued on to Le
Muy, a connecting point with the
gulf of St Tropez, via the Maures
mountains. In those days, a ferry
took the travellers across the
Argens river.
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The
range of the Maures stretches from
East to West in three separate
ridges cleft by deep, narrow
ravines. Even in the heat of summer,
thin rivulets of water manage to
flow at the bottom of these ravines,
turning them into magic places.
 The
history of the Maures is less
turbulent than that of the Esterel.
Their geological structure is more
complex, with a mixture of sandstone,
mica shale and gneiss. A great
North-South rift clearly marks the
break in the granite rock formation
between the villages of Le Muy and
Grimaud.Contrary to what people
often believe, the Maures were not
named after the Barbary invasions.
They owe their name to the provençal
word " Maoro ", meaning " dark ",
" obscure ". Indeed, the Maures are
covered with dark forests of
cork-oaks over which tower majestic
chestnut trees.
The
Esterel, just like the Maures,
welcomes visitors for walks. The
hills offer a large number of paths
and tracks bordered by a host of
colourful and fragrant wild flowers.
These grow on siliceous soil, the
home of cork-oaks and maritime
pines, which form the " maquis "
whereas the " garrigue " is to be
found on limestone soil. |
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