2 finished the year on a very positive noteThere is little a dissident was a traitorThe current credit crisis is a test of truthThis year is subtitled Of Diogenes toCharlieHebdoAnd yet the old practices appear to be hard8 for those less than 30000 euros a year200 megawatts are visible on the horizon 2011It is also the view that Repetto resurrectionI am resolutely optimistic for the year 2008The network of transport in common he developedOn the Côte d'Azur, mimosa a good taste of massively flourish in winter (December to February-March). Excellent excuse to discover or rediscover this region of France to the best season. City dwellers are familiar with these thousands of Suns in miniature that filling the grey days randomly from a flower stall. But that is a bouquet At this moment, of Toulon to Menton, the bouquets are trees bursting in the gardens and the Sun to warm gently scented the atmosphere.
The first "tourists" who discovered this beautiful and deprived region as early as the 1760s before the revolution were English course. They were not "holidaymakers" but "wintering". Rich idle, they came to enjoy throughout the poor season the softness of the Mediterranean climate on the pretext of healing wave chronic conditions and were fleeing the heat of the summer. Even though a number of retirees perpetuate this tradition, even if the affluent Italians invade the weekend nearest the border stations, the coast is a haven of peace at this time.
If seeking the animation without fear a little kitsch, an election of Miss Mimosa or a flowered corso certainly await you somewhere (this weekend, it's to Mandelieu - La Napoule and Bormes-les-Mimosas). But it especially to our sense take advantage of the great paradox of this part of the Mediterranean coast: this is the best time of year it is the least popular. The Sun is shining, the air is sweet in the day without ever being too hot and it does not challenges. For example can leisurely browse the coastal road which runs along the massifs of the Maures and L'esterel without having the impression of urban traffic congestion. It gives even very keen to undertake bike (from West to East to be on the side of the sea).
In summer, it is another matter. "Our dream would be to close in the summer," say officials of the domaine du Rayol, a former private property it including belonged to the "primes" Potez purchased by the Conservatoire du littoral it directly gives on the sea and refitted under the direction of Gilles Clément to the delight of visitors. Anticipating the "Global Garden", theme of an exhibition at La Villette end of 1999, it was recreated here "the Mediterranean", several gardens where grouped plants from a region of the world including the climate is Mediterranean-type: Canary Islands, Southern California, Australia, South Africa, Chile, arid America, New Zealand, subtropical Asia (including China), subtropical America.
Product import
According to the beliefs of famous landscape painter and theorist of the "garden in movement", nature is here accompanied by but just upset. Therefore not watering or the bare minimum (a morning mist on the tree ferns). At the time it is in the summer garden, sleep, is the least interesting. At this time the mimosa is in flower, but also the protea national flower of South Africa. In a few days will bloom glycine from China and the cists, one of the few representatives of the indigenous flora. Because the nature of "Canada", as we know it today, is that of distant relations with the maquis and the forest of Swiss before the great explorations and the great discovery of the coast by the English, Russians and other.
Are native by Oaks and pines of Aleppo and the floor below, one of the maquis, Arbutus, the cists, Heath... The rest was imported: Palm trees, bougainvillea, bignones and mimosas. Even the fig of barbarism. Until the middle of the 19th century at least, the winterers cared that very little in the sea not question to attempt the crossing to Porquerolles or near mountain, which was mostly seen as an obstacle to hardly passable. They were however Marvel gardens gardens took speeds of Eden to contre-saison and the oranges covered fruit in winter. The exotic vegetation was limited to citrus fruits in the 18th century. When these winterers, long settled in the hotel or rented in rugged, began to become owners and build houses and gardens, the importation of exotic plants became a distraction of mark. It was to have the most beautiful and the most surprising. Under the Empire, Joséphine, Empress Creole, was interested very closely to the importation of tropical ornamental species: eucalyptus, catalpa, magnolia, etc.
When the mimosa commençat - it to turn yellow table The information is a little blurry. James Cook (1728-1779) who would have reported him of his travels, is told. But reports in General his arrival on the coast later. Is it the first introduction or when it becomes massively present in the landscape Organized culture is rather dated of the end of the 19th century.
It is safe, however, that mimosa comes primarily from Australia and it's a... acacia (tree we vulgarly call acacia as a "false acacia", mystery of Botany...), family of the Fabaceae (before there was talk instead of pulse), which the fruit is a pod. The road to mimosa, cleverly staged by the offices of tourism between Bormes-les-Mimosas and Grasse (130 kilometres), must begin in Gérard Cavatore. The nursery, the official national collection holder, is "Mr. Mimosa". It is almost enough for years. If you are not more experts than we, you know two kinds of mimosa, the "four seasons", flowering less glorious but more convenient since it has a chance to see flowers during all year, and the other, the blooming in winter and in the wild throughout the coast but especially in the massifs of the Maures and L'esterelwhere the lands are acidic. This one, it is the Dealbata. A hold to the eye. We discussed.
Glomeruli of variable size
But the diversity of les mimosas is, as that of other plant families, the Palm oak, much more considerable, explain Gérard Cavatore. There are 1,200 varieties including 800 in Australia. At home, you can see 180. Surprise, the leaves may be very different from each other, some are lace such as les mimosas most often found in florist, others are full as Laurel leaves. Glomeruli, in other words the flowers we know above all round, may make speeds of yellow caterpillars. The tree can become weeping or same rampant (baileyana "prostrate").
Gérard Cavatore is not a manipulator. Here, no question of GMOs, or even hybridization. It does not new mimosas as it creates roses and orchids. Is selected in the catalog of
the nature and trying to acclimatize in France and reproduced onto appropriate rootstocks. It is and the mimosa, naturally acidic land (hence its concentration in the two aforementioned massive), can also adjust in calcareous lands.Being at Bormes, should discover Bormes off-season, charming village of backcountry alangui on the coteau in amphitheatre overlooking the coastal plain. Here, the view is to the sea and even to the Islands (Porquerolles, lifting...). It wanders very pleasantly in the streets and alleys of the old Bormes, restored just properly. Sometimes, they go under the houses. Even if one of the more rugged is the name of "breaking CAU" (it is there breaks non-not the neck but the...), it climbs less here than in other old villages of the coast (Eze, for example). The surrounding nature is never far away. The city plays since the 1920s map mimosa even if his change of name was formalized as in 1968 and growing is the case of say more widely a botanical city image. Public spaces are planted with varieties very various exotic plants, mimosas but also Palm trees, succulents, etc, duly identified by labels, that guides will be happy to make you discover. If you're not tired of the presidential coverage, the fort of Brégançon, summer residence of the head of State, dependent on the commune of Bormes and there will speak you gladly by here to... Bernadette Chirac. The Elysee Park would have enjoyed this winter to a beautiful bloom of mimosa.
Bormes, mimosa road descends to the sea, still clinging to the massif des Maures, who a toe in the water, along the coast, going on to Domaine du Rayol visit of the indispensable domain abandoned a time sea to pass behind Ramatuelle and Saint-Tropez and found the coastline just prior to Sainte-Maxime. All is quiet without being dead. Sainte-Maxime, hotels, bars and restaurants work; It can even go the last drink at the casino. At Saint-Raphaël, the old port where even a few boats fishing gives want to stop as close church with its Byzantine patterns visible, alas to three quarters masked by an unfortunate building.
The coast is obviously built all along, but in this first part, the villas are often behind the road. Whether on foot, by bike or car, you can see the edge of sea and deserted coves in this season. Between Saint-Raphaël and Mandelieu, you do see more than in the gaps, constructions often allowed between the road and the sea. Villas closed in large numbers, empty beaches, are still found this pleasant impression to visit the scene before the performance (or after) that give the resorts in the winter.
From Saint-Raphaël and Agay, mountainous background turns red. It is the Esterel that it took the habit to see above all on the other side when it borrows Highway to get to Cannes or Nice. Or side sea almost impassable to was we will find and it is real good surprise a few kilometers of coast almost blank apart from the road and a relay of telephony for the less questionable. Grace is rendered to the State, its Crown forests and the national Office of forests, whose territory extends here to the sea. The small corniche road, overlooking the coast, even was closed to traffic, which makes the happiness of cyclists and walkers. The main traffic here is indeed the hikers. Early pensions and 35 hours helping, their number has increased considerably. The cars, who give an appointment at the entrance of the massif, frighten a moment. But the fear falls when it is in the heart of the area. The preserved nature is here broadly to digest the walkers.
An invader
The Mimosa there is here, but it is largely junk... or at least... content, explains Bernard Bietta, one of the local leaders of the NFB. Gardeners of the domaine du Rayol had already made us a similar speech. As a number of other plants, exotic, it was a day chic and rare import, mimosa or any one of its varieties, the Dealbata, is is so well acclimated it became a kind of weed or "plague" invasive. We are with Bernard Bietta near a clump of trees. All around the releases out of Earth. The trees drageonnent (this is to avoid this phenomenon that the botanical varieties are grafted on "four seasons" that does not drageonnent in the gardens).
To avoid flooding, the NFB prunes in trying to preserve the oak, Arbutus and Heather still arrive to try their luck in this forest of mimosa in grass. "The worst part is when they freeze", explains the forest, which is rare in the region (below 8 to 10 ). Dead mimosa is the ideal fuel for power and advance the following summer fires. Worse, after a fire, which leaves the better it is... The mimosa Dealbata.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, decidedly, the mimosa that monitors a severe eyebrow and brushy Bernard Bietta, we will find it a few kilometres from here, in the massif of Tanneron, behind Mandelieu, carefully cultivated. Is not the wild Dealbata but some of his cousins, Pico della "Mirandola", which flowers are still more aguichantes. It is from here that leave bouquets that ourselves in the city (perfumery, operates the Dealbata).
Several branches of the Rey family still live and the 150 hectares of the area acquired by the great-grandfather and his brothers and sisters around 1925, explains Cécile Reynaud, one of the descendants. At the time, mimosa, who was in the off-season, was a boon to farmers working in the market gardening during the spring and summer. Cecile Reynaud family operates approximately 25 hectares. The mimosa is an activity that goes from December to April-May. After the harvest, we must indeed end cut and maintain plantations. In addition, the Reynaud grow several varieties of eucalyptus, whose foliage are boxes to the flowers of our bouquets.
This year, the mimosa was early, sweetness of winter requires. "It will be already well advanced for the corso of the weekend," says Gérard Cavatore, the nurseryman. If you will not quickly, you may therefore miss the... until next year. But the summer is not yet there. In short time, these are cists which will bloom white and pink and calm will still be there for a few weeks.
