Discover Tourtour

Tourtour in the Haut-Var

Tourtour lies in the Haut-Var at an altitude of 637 metres, south of the Verdon lakes and gorges. The village offers several ways to shape your choice of destination: cultural history, architecture and landscape. If you are considering which character of place suits your trip, you can align these interests with specific buildings, historic sites of use and viewpoints.

Museum, Fountains and Washhouse

The municipal public “Victor Zaneboni” Fossil Museum brings a natural-history focus. Tourtour also has eight village fountains. They offer a different point of reference from the museum: here, the focus is on recurring architectural features in the village, while the museum centres on fossils. If you are weighing natural history against the village’s appearance, these two sides of the place offer different points of interest for your trip.

Le Lavoir, the washhouse, adds a historic use to the picture. It was built in 1778 and used by the village women until the 1960s. The year it was built establishes when it originated, while the period of use records a later phase in the building’s history. At Le Lavoir, architectural history and everyday use thus sit side by side. If you are interested in how a place was used in the past, these two dates provide a concrete starting point.

Church and Historic Architectural Forms

Saint-Denis Church is believed to date from the late 10th century. Its single-nave hall has a Romanesque barrel vault. “Single-nave” describes a church space with one main nave; a barrel vault describes the shape of its vaulted ceiling. The dating and the architectural features answer different questions: one places Saint-Denis in time, while the others describe the layout of the church interior.

The Chapel of the Holy Trinity stands within Tourtour’s 17th-century fortifications. The Tour de Grimaldi, also known as the Tour de Grimaud, is a Saracen-style tower dating from the 12th or 13th century. The clock tower dates from the 19th century and is topped by a campanile. These dates allow for a brief comparison: the Tour de Grimaldi belongs to the Middle Ages, the fortifications to the 17th century and the clock tower to the 19th century. The structures also differ in form: the focus here is on the tower type, fortification and campanile.

Panoramas and Circular Routes

From the Tour de Grimaldi, the panoramic view extends across the region’s mountain ranges from Sainte-Victoire to the Estérel. An orientation table at Saint-Denis Church offers a panorama that reaches the coast. The garden of Château Raphélis also offers a panoramic view. The first two descriptions differ in their points of reference: the mountain ranges are named for the tower, while the panorama from the church reaches the coast. If views matter to your travel plans, these different vistas can help you get your bearings.

The département circular routes also offer different points of reference in the area. “Terres, truffes et cascades” passes by Tourtour’s entrance; 900 metres of the route run along roads. The Tourtour tourist office is on the “Les balcons du Haut-Var” département circular route. The distinction is useful for planning: the first route is described in terms of its passage by the village entrance and its road section, while the second is linked to the tourist office. If a circular route is part of your trip, you can distinguish between the two based on their respective points of reference.

Discover more destinations: Draguignan, Nans-Les-Pins, Saint-Paul-En-Forêt, Camps-La-Source, Châteauvert, La Motte, Solliès-Pont, Bras.

For the broader travel overview: Var.