This stage departs from the little abandoned hamlet of Bousiéyas and leaves the central zone of the Mercantour National Park to reach the Tinée valley and its picturesque villages. The hamlet of Bousiéyas belongs to the St Dalmas-le-Selvage community and until 1960 appeared to be the highest permanent settlement in the Nice hinterland (less than 100km from the sea). The trail starts the climb to the Colombière pass at the foot of the Vinaigre peak, a remarkable lookout point over the Tinée valley.
The GR® 5 long-distance trail then arrives in the village of Saint Dalmas-le-Selvage, whose name comes from the luxuriance of its forests (silva in Latin). This hamlet surrounded by sheer grey cliffs is the site of the source of the Tinée river. The architecture there is still traditional. The houses are enormous and have 2 floors over the stable: the living area and the loft. They are set slightly apart from each other in order to avoid the overly rapid propagation of flames in the event of a fire, as the heavily sloping rooftops have larch wood shingles and the walls of the lofts are also wooden. There is also a listed Roman church with a Lombard bell tower erected in 1718 by the Count of Dalmas, and a great number of sundials on the facades of the houses. It was the monks who came from the Italian abbey of Borgo S. Dalmazzo who cleared the ground and created pasture areas, thus leading to the creation of this village. That is why its inhabitants were for a long time said to be défricheurs (“ground clearers”).
Further along, as of the Anelle pass, the trail begins the descent to St Etienne-de-Tinée, a village of medieval architecture that was ravaged by fire in 1930. The perfectly structured walls in cut stone sometimes have sculpted door lintels and remarkable archways. Numerous XIIth and XIIIth century chapels or churches bear witness not only to the importance of religion but also to the prosperity of the region.
(Sara Zeidler, Gilles Chappaz, Grande Traversée des Alpes)