Travel Guide Roche-Saint-Secret-Béconne

At the gateway to Provence, the southernmost commune of the country, Roche-Saint-Secret-Béconne is a somewhat unusual village set in the centre of an admirable landscape. Surrounded by a powerful but delicate relief with the mountain of the Lance, the ship leaning from the rock of the Aures, the mount Rachas, the crest of Rozier. You come across a landscape of holm oaks on the sides, hidden grey marls pricked with a few pines. In the centre of the valley, the scents and colours of Provence, the yellow of brooms in May, the purple of lavender in July, the red vines in autumn.Here, good wine is made to be born and grown, truffles are hunted, apricots are picked and the Lez flows. The discreet, even... secret village has a rich heritage: the Romanesque church of St-Etienne, the Chapel of N-D. de Béconne, the tower or keep of Alençon, the Château d'Alençon, the ruins of Béconne (fiefdom of the lords of Vesc) and the former hydroelectric power station. The Lez Valley has a very rich heritage of remains. Since prehistoric times, people have occupied these places and left us tangible traces of their passage, such as the oppidum of the Iron Age of the Aures, Gallo-Roman villas, castles and chapels of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The industrial era also marked this part of the Drôme with the production of hydroelectric energy, silk and lime. More recently, the Massif de la Lance has been used as a refuge by the Maquis. Today, vines, apricots and lavandin are grown there (wine and fruit production, distillation of lavandin). Pottery workshops have been set up in the village.