Buis-les-Baronnies

Les Baronnies in the Drome Provencal has many villages rich in history with a mysterious past. In this part of Provence, you can find many churches and chapels, cabanons, fountains and wash houses, lost among the vineyards and lavender fields.

Buis les Baronnies is the most known town in the Baronnies and is located on the right bank of the Ouvèze at the foot of St. Julien and the ridge extends from the middle of pastures and beautiful olive groves. The dike that protects the city from flooding the Ouvèze during the winter is a sunny  promenade during summer where one can see the old village of La Roche-sur-le-Buiswith the ruins of its castle.

Buis les Baronies is located on the road of the Princes of Orange ‘La Route des Princes d'Orange ', this route was once used by the Princes of Orange (Orange dynasty which ruled from 1115 to 1702) to be able to reach their barony in Orpierre.

In the middle of the nineteenth century, large numbers of lime trees were planted and the lime tree became the specialty of Buis-les-Baronies. Plants and herbs such as lavender and thyme can be found here. Each year Buis-les-Baronnies organises La Fête du Tilleul’ (the Lime tree Festival).

Buis les Baronies has many monuments and places to visit such as the Place du Marché, which was full of stalls of the butchers, cobblers and other craftsmen before 1291 and surrounded by beautiful 15th century Gothic arches. Also on the Place des Arcades (15th and 16th centuries) and the former Dominican monastery, founded in 1294 by Raymond V.de  Mévouillon are places not to be missed. The monastery was built near the creek Malguery and burned in 1562 by Paul Mouvans, a Calvinist leader, after which nothing was left. The monastery was rebuilt in the late sixteenth century by the Bishop of Vaison during the establishment of a seminary and university and sold as national property after 1791, when the monastery became the property of the city.

Buis les Baronies with a forest of 30,000 lime trees, is a renowned rock climbing area with the  Ubrieux and Saint-Julien rocks and one of the beautiful climbing areas appearing on the list of climbing areas in France.

If you have some time left to saty a little longer in Buis-les-Baronnies then visit ‘La Maison des plantes aromatiques et médicinales’ which represents aromatic and medicinal plants of cultural tradition of distillation of lavender, lime trees and aromatic plants for more than two centuries . The Renaissance gate and the old Roman bridge over the Ouvèze you should not miss neither before you  leave this lovely village in Haute Provence.