Bargeme, un plus beaux villages de France

           Had it not been for a visit to the ceramics museum in Salernes we would never have seen Bargeme.  While touring the museum that tells the long history of the ceramics industry in Salernes I spotted a flyer for a Michael Kenna exhibition in Bargeme, a tiny village on a little traveled route on the way to absolutely nowhere.  Never heard of Bargeme.  Why would a world renowned photographer be having a five month show in a town with less people than an NYC apartment building?   

           Now as luck or lack thereof would have it the gallery was not open on Wednesdays, a fact I could have discerned had I read French better.  But, it was a small price to pay to have discovered Bargeme at all.  It is arguably the loveliest village perche (as in perched) yet.  No mean feat in a country where your last village is always the best.  It reminds me of Vermont where every village is a picture postcard of bucolic timelessness.  Appropriately Bergame has been deemed Un des plus beaux villages de France, a designation given to the most beautiful villages in all of France.  We concur and Michael Kenna will wait

            Bargème is the highest village in the Var perched at a height of 1,097 meters where it offers an unobstructed view of the pastoral valley below.  It shares the top of a rocky ridge with the towers of a medieval castle, Le Sabron de Ponteves, which was devastated by the Wars of Religion in the late fifteen hundreds.   More recurring themes, oui?