The upper Roya valley was for centuries the traditional route between Nice and Piedmont via the Tende pass. When the county of Nice became part of France in 1860, this valley remained Italian at the request of King Victor-Emmanuel who wanted to keep his hunting grounds in the Mercantour. It became definitively French in 1947.Built in a loop of the Roya river, Breil has this eventful history and undeniably has a Franco-Italian culture. This beautiful little village stretches to the foot of the Arpette mountain (1,610 m), its natural defensive rampart. The old town was opened up at the end of the 19th century thanks to the road linking it to Ventimiglia in Italy and then with the arrival of the train. Breil was for a long time a stopover on the salt road, the mule track between Piedmont and the Mediterranean. Enlarged and made passable after the creation of the port of Nice, it became the "Voie Royale" which linked Nice to Turin allowing the transit of goods and promoting the development of the villages crossed. Breil has kept the narrow streets and covered passages (courreou) from the medieval period and the Ligurian architecture, the arcaded squares, the houses with coloured facades, the trompe-l'oeil painted decorations and the glazed tiles of the bell towers. Breil was given to France in 1860. The hamlets attached to it did not become French until 1947: Libre, renowned for growing olive trees, and Piène-Haute, atop a rocky spur.

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