Revest du Bion

In the middle of the Plateau d'Albion in the Alpes de Haute-Provence is situated the village Revest-du-Bion. It is built on a mound due to its location on the plateau d'Albion but with a height of 960 meters you can call Revest a real mountain village.

Revest-du-Bion comes from the Latin 'revestum' which means  're-worked area after a period of desertification ‘, ‘du Bion’ is derived from ' d'Albion. It is certainly not a desert because of the lavender that flourishes around the village and across the plateau together with the rolling fields of wheat surrounding showing a colorful palette.

Although Revest-du-Bion has several restaurants and a bed and breakfast you can still enjoy the peace and quietness of yesteryear you’ll not encounter in almost any other village in Provence. An ultimate opportunity to enjoy quietly the panoramic views over the vast purple and blond plains on the Plateau d'Albion.

 This Provencal village was founded by the monks of the Abbey of Cluny at the end of the 11th century. Like many other villages in Provence Revest-du-Bion was destroyed by Raymond de Turenne where Louis XI fortified the village with a wall and then made it a fortress to defend the Dauphine - an old French province which ruled Revest-du-Bion and nowadays divided among the regions Rhône-Alpes (Drôme) and Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur (Hautes Alpes).

 If you enter the Provencal village you’ll notice the lovely fountain at the square - the only one in the whole village - at once. The water of the fountain flows through two brass cannons from the mouth of two chubby cherubs. The fountain originally served as a water trough for horses. The wash house, completely hidden in the back of the fountain, was provided with water through an overflow from the fountain.

Other monuments include the 13th century chapel ‘Notre Dame de l'Ortiguière’ (1274) rebuilt in 1665 and the austere church dedicated to Saint Pierre, built in the late 11th century of which only a few remnants can be seen on the north side of the building. The heart of the present church is built in Gothic style and dates from the 15th century in which a bell tower with four openings and a similar number of clocks was put in the mid 17th century.

Revest is not a peaceful and quiet village the whole year: every year on the first Sunday of August, Revest organises the harvest festival (La Fête des Moissons). Each year the chestnut festive season culminating in the Chestnut Festival known as 'La Fête de la Chataigne’. This to make known to the public the chestnut cultivation of the Plateau d'Albion and Revest-du-Bion in particular.