On exiting the market town of Saorge, Via Alpina heads to the gorges by the same name that keep the Roya enclave in a stranglehold for more than 500m. On the other side of the gorges, it is possible to observe the ruins of Malmort Castle and Paspus chapel below Lagouna. The “valley path” on which we scale the mountain, leaves the gorges and rises up a little until, just after a cross, it reaches a high point before plunging back down to the village of Breil and the Roya cove. What is more, the village of Breil-sur-Roya, located at the foot of a rocky peak and on the banks of a cove formed by the stream, nestles at the heart of a fertile olive-grove that used to supply 9 oil mills, one of which was also used to produce flour and today houses a museum. At the heart of this “olive country”, the trees planted on hand-constructed terraces create a very Mediterranean atmosphere. The olive oil, formerly of great repute and dispatched to the Russian court and the Nordic countries, represents half of the harvest while the rest is sold as the famous “olives of Nice”. On arriving in Breil, a little detour to the Cruella Tower, an old Genoese tower built in the XIth century by the counts of Vintimille, lords of the valley, and today a symbol of the market town, proves an interesting viewpoint. In the station of Breil, the Haut-Pays Ecomuseum presents an exhibition on railway transport and techniques that allow visitors to understand the importance of communication points such as La Roya. Furthermore, the old community oven has also been moved to the museum. In the village, the traces of the old ramparts of the famous Genoa Gate through which an old donkey trail passes rise up around the winding, shaded streets in which the houses call to mind the Liguria of the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries with the trompe-l’oeil stucco on the house facades and the arcaded squares. However, in addition to the aspects of Breil that make it a flagship of Ligurian architecture, it is also possible to discover some religious heritage with penitents’ chapels as big as churches or the baroque-style Sancta Maria in Albis parish church with pink facades designed according to original architecture in the shape of a Greek cross. This listed church, located on the Nisso-Ligurian baroque route, also accommodates a museum of religious art. Once every 4 years in Breuil, a medieval reconstruction, A Stacada, also commemorates the abolition of the “droit de cuissage”. The Benedictine church of St Antoine de Padoua in the South of the town is also of significant interest. Further south, descending the Roya valley towards its Italian part, you will come across the hamlets of Piène and Libre, which are very recent additions to French territory since they were only attached to Breil in 1947, as were the communities of Tende and La Brigue in the Haute-Roya region.
(Nicolas Aubertin, Gilles Chappaz, Grande Traversée des Alpes)