After the first world war the military left the fort and many civilians left too, with the population dropping down to only 30 during the 1970s-1980s. Nowadays, after many artists and craftspeople moved in to work for tourists, the population is 170.
This image gives you an idea of the shape of the fortifications. All the Vauban forts which we've seen have similar shapes. It's very hard to show this from ground level pictures. I've mentioned Vauban before but for anyone who doesn't know, he was a French military engineer who served under Louis XIV, and was considered the greatest military engineer of his time. He also worked on many civilian infrastructure projects, such as ports, canals and roads.
We entered by the road that you see at the bottom of the photo above and went over a couple of moats/ditches to get into the village part of the fortress.
The views are magnificent here.
Keith in front of one of the Corps de Garde (guardhouses) - this was on our way out so is the same guard house as the one I'm standing in front of above.
The Lunette d'Arcon - with a vaulted artillery proof chamber, which was probably to defend the main entrance to the fort. You can see it (V shaped) bottom left in the aerial photo. (I've got my photo order mixed up - this was before the bridges and guard houses, but I'm not going to change it all now!).
Southern Globethistle (Echinops ritro), a plant that seems to thrive in dry soil at this time of the year. It is very prickly though!
If you look closely at the largest image, you can see a Honey Bee at the top of the largest flower, a Violet Carpenter Bee under the flower, and a wasp of some sort on the right hand flower.
Going over the second bridge to enter the village.
Inside the village area.
There are only a few streets and I've found that the villages within Vauban's forts tend to be a bit austere.
Same street, looking back in the other direction.
We walked past the village and into an area of trees, then into an open area within the fortifications with amazing views. Being perched up on a rock like this adds to the defensive nature of forts like this - there is only one entrance on the flat side.
I think we are looking in the direction of the Ecrins mountain range which is further down that valley where the straight road which crosses the Guil river goes. I think our campsite was up there too - it's hard to tell directions sometimes!
We didn't visit Guillestre town itself and after this we headed south to the coast!👍
