This month's article by Will Alkass describes the memorable nearby village of Lucéram at Christmas time.
The medieval village of Lucéram, one of the famous “perched villages” (villages perchés) in Provence in the South of France, is situated some twenty five kilometres north of Nice and has something unique to offer both its thirteen hundred permanent residents and the many tourists who visit during the Christmas festivities.
Every year between 4th December and 9th January, thanks to the efforts of the mayor and the local associations, Lucéram is transformed into a fairy-tale-like place. The whole village is decorated with pine branches and red and gold ribbons and over five hundred crèches are scattered along narrow winding alleys, window sills, doorways, arches, balconies, cellars, letter boxes; they can be found literally in every nook and cranny throughout the village, including of course its old churches and chapels. And if that is not enough, there is also a museum that houses a huge and bewildering collection of works of art all dedicated to the story of the nativity.
The crèches vary in size, ranging from ones with life-size models of the characters at the nativity, to others that are as small as a half shell of a walnut with the main characters still all fitting into it! These crèches are made from different materials such as tissue, wood or pinecone. And as you might expect, there is also a little restaurant and boulangerie in the village where local goodies are served along with the obligatory mulled wine!
The tourist information centre issues a map with a suggested “Circuit de Crèches” to follow so as to see as much as possible of these interesting displays. This year will be the 26th anniversary of this remarkable and unique show and the number of visitors is expected to exceed 50,000. Getting to the village by car takes about thirty minutes, or you can take bus number 616 from Vauban, which takes about one hour. Bon Voyage!
