Driving up to Les Courmettes
The grounds are very nice...
The Domaine de Courmettes was originally a sanatorium; it is located on land that is part of the village of Tourrettes-sur-Loup and belongs to the Association Amiral de Coligny. More recently, it has been used as a retreat, a conference center, and a vacation camp. At this time (April 2007) the complex is closed; several projects are being evaluated to see to what use the Domaine de Courmettes may be put in the future. Because the purpose of the Asociation Amiral de Coligny is to combat tuberculosis, it is not impossible that the domain will become associated with health care again. Another possibility is to make it a training center for environmentalists as the buildings are situated amid a nature preserve of some 600 hectares (roughly 1,500 acres). If I become aware of updates to this, I will post them in this space. The photos on this page were taken on Saturday, March 31, 2007 and reprocessed from the original raw files in November of 2015.
Click on any of the small images below to see a larger 2400x1600 pixel version!
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Driving up to Les Courmettes |
The grounds are very nice... |
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...and the front is rather imposing. |
The tree-lined path to the building |
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The red fire hydrant |
Under the archways |
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The house on the left |
The building on the right |
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Taking a closer look |
Looking across the front lawn |
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The property is nicely maintained |
Looking at the main building |
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The part to the left was added on... |
...which made the terrace shorter. |
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The front lawn |
In the back |
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Looking down on the domain |
This part could do with a paint job |
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Discarded pallets provide a touch of color |
Looking from the back toward the building with the terrace |
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This truck jas seen better days |
On the main terrace |
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Turning around the corner |
Looking down the main terrace the other way |
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View from the terrace |
It looks like somebody still lives here! |
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The top floor used to end at the drain pipe... |
...and enlarging it made for a huge terrace! |
With all the ups and downs, one climbs some 950 meters (3,117 feet) during this hike. Because I stayed on the summit of the Pic de Courmettes for quite a while and lost a great deal of time on the way down, the entire trek took almost nine hours if one includes the emergency beverage break when returning to Courmes (I had run out of water when I reached a dead end on the way down). The whole hike coud be done in much less time, and provided one stays on marked paths and doesn't get stuck in ravines, there is no difficulty whatsoever. This is clearly a highly recommended outing!
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