The Village

Tourtour is a picturesque little village in the central Var, northwest of Draguignan and southeast of the Lac de Ste Croix. It's a compact village of Medieval houses, with a long, shady central square, two old chateaux and other ancient sights, and welcoming cafés, restaurants and shops. Along the south side of the Place des Ormeaux, café-restaurant tables surround a pair of tall olive trees. These oliviers replaced a pair of enormous elms planted in 1638 when Anne d'Autriche stopped here on her pilgrimage to Cotignac. The square is named after those now-gone elm trees (ormeaux).

On the opposite side of the same square, more terrace café-restaurant tables are shaded by a row of tall plane trees. A storybook 16th-century chateau with four round towers sits at the southeast end of the village. This pretty, Medieval castle houses the Tourtour town hall (Mairie) and the post office. Up until 1970 it was also the village school. This ancient chateau, once called the Chateau du Raphélis, was purchased by the commune in 1952, and is now called the Chateau Municipal. The chateau facade was "restored" in 2001, covering the exposed-stone walls with a coloured cement "crepi". It's now prettier, but not universally appreciated.

There's another Medieval chateau, at the north end of Tourtour, called the Chateau Vieux. This "Old Chateau" has a pair of round towers and is clearly visible along the northwest side of the village. The Old Chateau houses an art gallery, but is otherwise closed to the public. Out at the southeast end of the village, where the Romanesque Eglise Saint-Denis sits a bit higher than the village, there's a panorama panel and a magnificent view out across the surrounding countryside.

The hillsides are all forested, and you can identify distant, lower villages with the help of the "table d'orientation", and if it's clear you can the Maures, the Luberon, Ste. Baume and the Ste. Victoire near Aix-en-Provence. Tourtour is nicknamed the "village dans le ciel", or village in the sky; viewed from afar it seems to sit on top of the horizon dominating the rest of the landscape.

There's a 17th-century olive-oil mill (Moulin à huile) on Rue des Moulins, at the far western edge of the old village. When olive oil production diminished in the region, this one mill was kept as the communal mill. It was renovated in 1934 and again in 1949.

The Tourtour olive-oil mill is today open in the summer as a living-mill museum and an art museum. During the winter olive season, mid-December to January or February, it's still used as a functioning communal olive-oil mill for local growers. The mill is open to visitors during this period.

On the rue de le Lavoir along the north edge of the village is a very nice lavoir, fed by a small stream that flows along the edge of the road. The source of the water is a spring by the Chapel Saint-Rosaire about a km northeast of the village. The water is so fresh, its temperature varies no more than three degrees between summer and winter.