LE PLAN DE LA TOUR...

In the vineyards if the Maures Hills

PLAN DE LA TOUR resembles an ancient sepia-coloured postcard. It is one of those typical villages which was first built around a church, then spread out into little hamlets. Luckily, the village centre has never grown too big. So much so, that the surrounding hamlets (no less than 25 !), named Reverdit, Les Pierrons, Vallaury, Le Plan, Le Revest, Gambades, etc. are not actually joined to the village, but spread out below it in a sort of circle surrounded by hills.

As you adventure along the local footpaths, tucked away in valleys or twisting around the hillsides, you will probably come across groups of three or four old cottages with smoking chimneys, a few sheep grazing in the pastures and the pretty streams supplying the fountains and wells of this fertile plain. This area of the Var region really hasn't changed much since the days when men wore hats and mixed congregations weren't allowed in the local church...

Originally, the inhabitants of Plan de la Tour came to shelter here after fleeing the Saracen invasions on the coast. The village was made independent from La Garde-Freinet after the Revolution. From "Col de Gratteloup" pass above Sainte-Maxime, the scenic route runs along the hilltops to the village, then on to La Garde-Freinet. This section of the village is now slowly recovering from the terrible forest fires of recent years, which have destroyed part of the local vegetation.

With its pretty bell tower and quiet streets, Plan de la Tour is a wonderfully peaceful village - the dream place for a long siesta, lulled by the song of the cicadas.

Plan de la Tour and its basket maker…

Among the village's local personalities, the most famous is undoubtedly Hubert Olivier, a skilled basket maker who has been practising his art in the village for some 50 years now! The baskets made by Hubert come in all shapes and sizes : big, small, square, round, they are used for gathering olives, grapes, cherries or mushrooms and are all made from chestnut cut between November and March, during the last quarter of the moon, on the shady side of the hills. True works of art !

Hubert learned his trade from his grandfather who formerly made these baskets for the grape harvest. At the age of twelve, he loved travelling on the donkey cart (his grandfather also used to transport wood and wine) to the port of Sainte-Maxime...

Hubert Olivier is the Var region's only genuine remaining chestnut basket maker. The rest are mere imitations ! If you wish to meet him, you can go at his home in Hameau du Vernet, Route de La Garde- Freinet, where he keeps on his activity with a lot of pleasure. Hubert Olivier was born at Plan de la Tour and has never left. For after all, isn't this a place where holidays never end ?