Alpilles

Alpilles landscape near Le Destet. The three types of landscape forms can clearly be seen: cultivated land on the lower slopes, trees on the foothills and bare rock on the peaks.

The Chaîne des Alpilles is a small range of mountains in Provence, southern France, located about 20 km (12 miles) south of Avignon.

Geography

The range is actually an extension of the much larger Luberon range. Although it is not particularly high - only some 387 m (1,270 ft) at its highest point - the Alpilles range stands out disproportionately, as it rises apparently sheer from the plain of the Rhône valley. The range is about 25 km long by about 8 to 10 km wide, running in an east-west direction between the Rhône and Durance rivers.

The landscape of the Alpilles is one of arid, dry limestone peaks with dry valleys separating them.

Flora and fauna

The lower slopes are planted with olive and almond trees with kermes oaks and pines also growing there. Much of the range is, however, bare rock or stony ground covered with scrub and maquis.

The highest parts of the range are a nature reserve inhabited by a number of rare species, including Bonelli's eagle, the Egyptian vulture and eagle owl. Some of these species were introduced in the Alpilles in the 1980s.

Miscellaneous

The Alpilles were immortalised in art by Vincent van Gogh, who painted many images of the Alpilles' landscapes during his time in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence on the north side of the mountains.

Alphonse Daudet's 1885 novel Tartarin sur les Alpes , which is a sequel to the 1872 Tartarin de Tarascon, takes place in the Alpilles.

Sights in and around the Alpilles

• Fontvieille and Alphonse Daudet's windmill
• Les Baux de Provence
• Saint-Rémy-de-Provence and the ruins of the Roman city of Glanum
• Arles
• Abbaye de Montmajour
• Eygalières
• Saint-Étienne-du-Grès
• Eyguières
• Lamanon
• Mouriès