Maxi Goureng (trail route no. 14)

The common barberry is a bush with long thorns arranged in threes, and with oval serrated leaves. In spring, it produces clusters of yellow flowers, which later develop into red, oval and elongated berries. These tart fruits are edible and can be made into jellies... if you have the patience to gather them! This shrub grows almost everywhere.

Elle correspond à une zone de surcreusement lors des glaciations : le glacier freiné par le verrou de roche dure de Pallon, a creusé une dépression. Au retrait des glaciers, un lac est resté coincé derrière ce verrou, peu à peu comblé par des alluvions. C'est maintenant un espace agricole facilement mécanisable.

The valley was created as the result of glacial overdeepening, that is to say, when the glacier came to a halt against the Pallon hard rock bar, it created a depression. When the glaciers retreated, a lake was left behind this rock bar and was gradually filled up by alluvial deposits. From a historical point of view, the Protestant pastor Félix Neff fundamentally altered life in the valley in 1826 by founding a training college for primary school teachers, developing irrigation processes and teaching new crop growing methods, among other things…

Perché sur un bloc au milieu de la rivière, un oiseau trapu, à la queue courte, brun avec une grande bavette blanche, se balance de haut en bas avec la queue dressée. Puis il plonge et ne réapparaît que quelques instants plus tard. Cet oiseau chasse ainsi, plongeant puis marchant à contre-courant au fond de l'eau en quête de larves aquatiques d’insectes, de petits crustacés ou petits poissons, soulevant les galets avec son bec pour les déloger. 

Here, the drought-sensitive fir has established itself among the larches. This forest harbours treasures such as the very rare ghost orchid and the shield-moss, a unique little moss - also rare - which grows on wood in an advanced state of decomposition and thus signals that the natural cycle of the forest is unimpaired.

Emblème des Alpes du sud, ce résineux perdant ses aiguilles en hiver, se pare d’or et illumine la montagne à l’automne. Les mélézins sont entretenus par le pâturage des troupeaux. Sans eux, d’autres arbres comme le sapin ou différents pins peuvent pousser pour donner un autre type de forêt. Espèce pionnière, le mélèze ne craint pas la lumière pour s’installer. Son bois résistant et imputrescible a toujours servi pour la construction des maisons.

A harsh call sounds from the forest. A jay perhaps? No, a nutcracker, its cousin. With dark, white-spotted plumage, this bird's strong beak can break open hazelnuts (although not walnuts as suggested by its name in French, cassenoix (walnut breaker)) and in particular it can dissect Swiss pine cones in order to reach the pine nuts inside. It inhabits high forests. It buries Swiss pine nuts in the ground to store up food for the winter. When winter comes, it will find the pine nuts again even under a thick layer of snow. Those it forgets will germinate.

The small valley of Clot Laffont is part of the alpine pasture area of Tramouillon, behind the pass that shares its name. As in any alpine pasture, the shepherd drives the flock to different areas according to the time of year. The August area, at a higher altitude and with lower-growing grass that matures later, is grazed in the second half of the summer. The animals will then return to the lower areas. In order to stay close to the animals, the shepherd has three shepherd's huts in this area.

The black grouse lives here. It is also called the blackcock, a large bird the size of a hen. The male is black with a lyre-shaped tail. The female is russet-brown. It lives on north-facing slopes, around the forest edge. The female nests on the ground, near the meadows where protein-rich crickets nourish the nestling! In some alpine pasture, the breeding grounds are closed to flocks in order to prevent the eggs and chicks from being trampled.

Pallon marks the entrance to the ancient glacial valley of Freissinières, enclosed behind a bar of hard rock. As they melted, the glaciers left behind a lake, trapped by this bar. It is said that this natural dam has been breached on numerous occasions. In the Middle Ages, suddenly released into the Gourfouran gorge, the water is said to have laid ruin to the village of Rame, standing on the plain.

Du fait de son implantation stratégique, l’histoire de Pallon est riche et mouvementée. A la croisée des chemins, Pallon est aujourd’hui une étape du GR 653D Montgenèvre – Arles qui suit la voie domitienne empruntée par les pèlerins d’Italie en route pour Compostelle et les pèlerins français en route pour Rome !

The hamlet of Pallon is in a sunny location. Around the village, a curious plant with long brown trumpet-like flowers grows on the edges of the stone piles in the fields and meadows: the aristolochia pistolochia or birthwort. Of Mediterranean affinity, this plant benefits from the hot dry climate here and is virtually at its northern boundary. It is the host plant of the caterpillars of a rare and protected butterfly: the Spanish festoon. 

A low spreading shrub, the savin juniper is very common in stony meadows and uncultivated land on warm slopes. Its dark, matte green leaves in the form of small scales, overlap along the branches. So it isn't spiky... but you still need to be cautious as it is very toxic. For seasoning dishes, better to gather the fruits of the common juniper!

The floor of the pine forest is carpeted by a creeping sub-shrub with glossy oval evergreen leaves. In spring, the bearberry produces small bell-shaped flowers which are white and edged with pink. They will turn into red berries, edible but floury. Bears love them, hence their name. It is a drought-tolerant plant. 

The birds that are constantly swooping around the cliff are crag martins. They are brown with a beige underside. They have built their nests under small overhangs. This species is very common in the Alps. Partially migratory, crag martins return to the Mediterranean coast in winter, where they join resident populations. So it is the first bird to reappear in the valleys of the Pays des Écrins in late February and the last to leave in October!

La vallée correspond à une zone de surcreusement lors des glaciations : le glacier freiné par le verrou de roche dure de Pallon, a creusé une dépression. Au retrait des glaciers, un lac est resté coincé derrière ce verrou, s'étendant jusqu'aux Ribes (« les rives ») et peu à peu comblé par des alluvions propices à l'agriculture.

In June and early July, the rocks are brightened up here and there by large orange flowers: the fire lily is a splendid plant which grows in the mountains of Europe. It grows in rocky or bush-covered terrain and even - why not? - right on the cliff faces, in dry areas. It is a protected species. 

Un chêne s'accroche sur les vires de la via ferrata : c'est le chêne pubescent, aux feuilles marcescentes : elles sèchent l’automne mais restent sur l’arbre tout l’hiver. Il a été nommé pubescent car ses jeunes rameaux, ses bourgeons et parfois le dessous de ses feuilles est pubescent, c'est-à-dire recouvert d’un fin duvet. La forêt de pin sylvestre et de chêne pubescent est une forêt typique des adrets montagnards dans les vallées intra-alpines. 

Ses fleurs rappellent celle du lys, d’où son nom. On peut en effet la confondre avec le lys des Alpes, encore nommé lys de Saint-Bruno. Touts les deux ont des belles fleurs blanches à six tépales (sortes de pétales) mais, alors que celles du lys des Alpes sont grandes et peu nombreuses, celles de la phalangère sont plus petites (environ 2 cm de long) et nombreuses. Elle pousse sur les coteaux secs, pierreux et ensoleillés.

Formé au début de l'ère secondaire, il y a plus de 200 millions d'années, par l'accumulation de sédiments dans des fonds marins situés à l'est de l'actuel pays des Écrins, ce calcaire fait partie de la « nappe briançonnaise ». Cette nappe de sédiments a été charriée vers l'ouest par les forces tectoniques rapprochant l'Europe de l'Afrique et qui sont à l'origine de la formation des Alpes. Cette nappe est venue chevaucher d'autres roches.

The history of Freissinières is linked to that of the Waldensians, who found refuge in this valley and in other Alpine valleys in the thirteenth century. The followers of this religious movement - which later embraced the reformation - were deemed to be heretics and therefore persecuted. This cave, in which Waldensians sought refuge after being taken by surprise, witnessed massacres perpetrated by the Inquisition. 

Le Pays des Ecrins a été précurseur en matière d’installation de via ferrata. C’est à Freissinières, en 1988, que fût équipée la première via ferrata française à vocation touristique. La via ferrata des Vigneaux a été inaugurée dans la foulée. Aujourd’hui, le territoire compte 7 via ferrata de tous niveaux, souvent implantées dans des lieux emblématiques : la falaise de l’horloge à l’Argentière, les gorges du torrent d’Ailefroide aux Claux, les gorges de la Durance, les falaises de Freissinières, etc.

A large pale yellow butterfly with black stripes flutters from bush to bush. There is a "tail" at the tips of the posterior wings, marked with an orange and blue blotch. The scarce swallowtail lives in hot, dry environments. It favours uncultivated land where blackthorn and hawthorn grow, on which the female lays her eggs and where the caterpillars develop.  

The common redstart can be told apart from its cousin, the black redstart by its white eyebrow (hence its French name which is translated as "white-browed redstart") and its orange breast. At least for the male, since the female of both birds is duller and brownish, but the female common redstart also has an orangey tail. It returns from Africa in early April and searches the areas to find a hollow in a tree or in an old wall where it builds its nest. 

Félix Neff was a Swiss Protestant pastor. He was responsible for the Protestant Revival in the Freissinières valley in the seventeenth century. He also set up the first education college for primary school teachers in France, in Dormillouse in 1826. He was also behind new irrigation and house-building techniques, developments which improved the everyday lives of the local people. 

The church of Sainte Marie-Madeleine was built in the seventeenth century. It is thought to be a former Protestant church which escaped destruction in 1684 when Louis XIV was leading an anti-Protestant drive. The Protestant church is then thought to have undergone works to convert it into a Catholic church.

The name Freissinières comes from the old word freissinière meaning "black ash". This municipality, which extends as far as the Col des Terres Blanches and the Col de Freissinières, both of which overlook the Champsaur valley, is made up of thirteen hamlets, although none of them are called Freissinières! Archaeological excavations carried out twenty years ago show that sites at high altitude (such as Faravel) were occupied on a seasonal basis from the retreat of the glaciers 12,000 years ago (Upper Palaeolithic period) and that this occupation continued after that.