The Devès

Located between the Vaux Mountain the north and the Eygues banks to the south, contiguous to the clue (rocky around a watercourse), the town of Nyons is the gateway to the Baronnies Provencal massif by the Eygues valley. From the fourteenth to the nineteenth century, its bridge was the only structure, upstream of Orange, to allow the crossing of the river in any season. The city becomes the point of passage for the commercial and military routes.

The establishment of olive trees in the Baronnies Provençale dates back to Antiquity as evidenced by the presence of Roman weights used for the oil press. Olive trees are already mentioned as a Nyons resource since 972 and in the Middle Ages, a large part of the local economy of the region is based on the olive oil trade. The two big freezes of 1929 and 1956 caused the loss of half of the olive trees and the closing of many mills.

The Nyons olive, "Tanche” variety, is harvested ripe, so black, after the first frost, from late November to late January. Olives of large caliber are intended for canning (mouth olives, Tapenade, Affinade ...) and the smaller ones are used to make the oil. The cultivation method and the quality of the olives of the west of the Baronnies Provençal massif was recognized in 1994 by the creation of an Controlled Appellation of Origin: The PDO "black olive and olive oil of Nyons".

The Bourdons cliff is a site equipped for sport climbing in the 1980s and partially re-equipped in 2001. It presents a limestone pierced with numerous small crevices which denote compared to the other climbing cliffs of the massif. There is a climb of fifteen meters high with "water drops", "bulging" and slabs making this site a complete cliff for climbers.

The Notre-Dame de Réparat chapel, built at the top of Devès, owes its name to the site that surrounds it, called "la Roche" (rupis in Latin). This district is formerly occupied: its inhabitants took advantage of its belvedere location, between the plain to the west and the Baronnies mountains to the east. Already mentioned in the thirteenth century, it was associated with a hermitage but in the nineteenth century, it is abandoned and falls into ruin. The hermitage was restored about twenty years ago.

On the city of Nyons and on its heights blows a wind typical of the micro-climate the Pontias. This northern wind is credited with keeping the Nyonsais air fresh and dry. The Pontias legend tells that it appeared when Césaire, bishop of Arles at the beginning of the 6th century, threw his glove against a rock in which he had previously captured a breeze by the sea. Where the glove touched the rock, the earth opened and the wind gushed out, creating the "Pontias hole".

Le Devès est une montagne formée à partir de sédiments accumulés sur les bords d'une mer chaude, il y a entre 20 et 16 millions d'années. Avec la formation des Alpes, ces couches se sont élevées de quelques centaines de mètres. Elle sont fortement faillées et l'eau qui y pénètre renforce encore l'érosion. De nombreuses grottes, à commencer par le "trou du Pontias" ont fait l'objet d'investigations spéléologiques dès les années 1630.

The Devès vegetation, on its slope oriented to the south west very exposed to the sun, is particularly adapted to the hot and dry conditions: it's the scrubland. Several varieties of juniper (G. commun, G. cade, G. of Phenicia) have colonized this stony and filtering soil, where oaks and pines can not plant their roots. Their tiny leaves (thorns) and their small size are all strategies developed to limit their needs (and losses) in water.

In the center of the old town of Nyons, the church and the monastery Saint-Césaire are located on a site certainly occupied since antiquity. Above, the Forts district, with its thirteenth-century towers and its walls, is a secular neighbourhood. To the east and west, the city then developed around the Place des Arcades and a street that led to the Alps. The city remained in the walls until the eighteenth and it was not until the twentieth century that it spread in the lowland.

La montagne du Devès est directement attachée à l'histoire de la ville de Nyons. On y trouve des traces d'occupation depuis le néolithique. Après une phase de déboisement aux XIe-XIIe s. on y a réglementé le pâturage et la coupe de bois afin d'éviter les inondations en aval. C'est ce qui lui a donné son nom, le "Devès", autrement dit la montagne "mise en défens". Aujourd'hui, c'est un espace naturel, à la flore très riche, où on peut encore trouver des traces de cultures en terrasses.