Tour du Grand Vallon by mountain bike

The emergence of the Rosaceae family 80 million years ago marked the birth of this large family to which the apple belongs. The apple as we know it today first appeared in the early Quaternary period in the region of Turkey, approximately 2 million years ago. Originally, apples were tiny and poisonous. During the Neolithic period, the shift to a sedentary lifestyle, along with access to agriculture and animal husbandry, facilitated their development and subsequent spread to Egypt, Greece, and Italy. In the 7th century BC, the founding of Marseille by the Greeks was undoubtedly one of the starting points for the introduction of the apple tree in southern France. The Romans brought with them the thirty or so varieties they knew. From the 10th to the 14th century, monasteries developed the importation and grafting of apples. Today, several thousand apple varieties exist; here, the Golden Delicious is the most common. As for its medicinal benefits, here are a few that will certainly encourage you to eat apples more often (tooth decay, constipation and diarrhea, fatigue, insomnia, obesity and cellulite, burns…).

By the end of the 19th century, erosion had reached catastrophic levels in the Southern Alps. The cause was centuries of rampant deforestation, which left bare soil vulnerable to runoff.Several laws were successively enacted, giving the government the authority to intervene—sometimes against the will of residents who were unaware of what was at stake.Forest houses were built to house Water and Forestry personnel and to prepare for future plantings using the surrounding nurseries.Numerous experiments were conducted to establish the Austrian black pine as the preferred species for reforestation.But foresters liked to shade their homes with majestic and decorative exotic species, such as the redwoods and cedars seen here.Just north of La Motte du Caire, the Saignon basin is a good example of ongoing research into the evolution of these man-made forests. There is also a trail with educational resources (informational signs).In the heart of the UNESCO Geoparc of Haute-Provence, some sites mention reforestation and erosion: Brusquet forest parc, Demontzey parc (located at Labouret pass) and Draix experimental basins. Source : www.geoparchauteprovence.com/