Pictures from Col des Thuilles (2376m), la Gimette, Les Thuilles, Ubaye Valley, Alpes de Haute Provence, Southern France, in fall 1999 from the road crossing (1300m) below the crete de Gimette to Col des Thuilles (2376m), denivelée 1100m, and May 2001 to Clot du Roi (1972m), denivelée 700m - photographer gd@zel.org.

This page is part of the mountain forest protection campain (MFPC). The new nasty road which cuts through the very steep hill at the north face of La Gimette was constructed between fall 2000 and spring 2001, crosses the previously untouched and beautiful hiking trail twice. Even in summer when it's very hot, this trail is very recommended, because the trees protect you against the sun while you mounts the uncountable switch-backs.

But they cut the trees faster than I can take the photos. I estimate, that the new road currently stops at elevation 1600m, but there are already signs on trees above that point, which most probably indicate its continuation in direction Clot du Roi (1972m). (See photo, no. 21 and description below.)

Photo no. 5 below shows a (hopefully) finished clear-cut at the inner west face at the entry of the Gimette valley.

The Gimette mountain is even steeper than the Peyron mountain, which is in the neighor community; see another mountain forest currently under destruction by the construction of a tax-payer subsidized road in the community of Méolans-Revel,

My experience shows, that the municipalities will not be able to maintain these roads. The roads are constructed to cut and transport the trees to sell the wood.

Does this desserted alpine forest really merit to be destroyed by subsidies? As explained in the Méolans-Revel page, cutting the trees would not be profitable, if the roads were not subsidized.

Questions, corrections, suggestions? Write to gd@zel.org

Click on the images to enlarge:

Write a registered letter with confirmation of receipt to the major of Les Thuiles and protest about the Gimette forest road construction. (It doesn't matter in what language you write, because my experience shows that they won't reply. So language is not important; it seems thet they can't read in any language. Please don't be disappointed, because it is likely, that they express their disdain with their unresponsiveness.) On the right hand side is the address of the major of Les Thuilles:	La Mairie Attn.: Monsieur le Maire F-04400 Les Thuilles, France
"Today there is an especially virulent form of corruption induced by overly rigid systems. This new corruption, in service to the 'system's imperative,' is nonresponsiveness to constitutent needs. A second form of corruption is the shocking waste of time and talent poured into beating the system." Quote from Tom Peters, "Thriving on Chaos"
The new road starts cutting left at the north face of the Gimette.	The Gimette valley with the Grand Seolane
No. 5: Another (hopefully) finished clear-cut at the inner west face at the entry of the Gimette valley.	Col des Thuilles (2376m), photo taken from Clot du Roi (1972m) sur la crête de la Gimette, in May 2001.
Vu 13-May-2001 à coté du sentier a la Gimette	La Grande Séolane
Les Thuilles village	Flora: noli-me-tangere
	strange stone structures at the Grande Seolane
Fauna: "one sheep, two sheep, blue sheep, black sheep"
	No. 21: The solid red line drawn just above the new road shows its first part. The road then continues on the back side of the Gimette in two switch backs, marked dashed-dotted. From seeing the marked trees, I guess, that the road will later be continued to the height indicated by the dashed red line. (The photo was taken from Meolans-Revel).

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