Saorge Baroque Art and Music Festival

On Saturday 13 September 2014, I travelled to Saorge with my dear cousin Laurence and spent a day at the Saorge Baroque Art and Music Festival held there every second year.  Saorge is a very beautiful and typical medieval village located inland from the French Riviera region some 70 kms from Nice.  The village is perched on the side of the mountain and overlooking the “Vallée de la Roya”.  Saorge is classed as one of the "40 most beautiful villages of France".

The Village of Saorge at the Foothills of the Alps



Saorge Festival Poster

During that time, the whole village is filled with music, dancing, food and a magnificent concert in the evening.  It was a unique opportunity to listen to folk music and watch musicians mainly from France and Italy perform with a wide range of ancient instruments.

Entertainment in one of the Cafes at the Saorge Music Festival

 

Musicians Playing at the Saorge Music Festival



One of the Many Groups that Performed at the Saorge Music Festival

Street Entertainment at the Saorge Music Festival
 

One of the churches in the village was the perfect background for a series of musicians and singers’ performances during the day.

Inside the Saorge Main Church

The Pulpit of the Saorge Church

View of the Saorge Church from the Altar
 

The village is full of very picturesque streets linking ancient churches and chapels at different levels of the village.  The high, narrow stone houses dating from the 15th-17th century line the narrow steep cobbled streets that climb up through the village offering impressive views of snow-capped mountains in winter and the deep gorge and river below.

Decorated Street in Saorge

House Front Door in Saorge

Public Fountain at Saorge

Street Fountain in Saorge

The Saorge Public Clothes Washing Basin
 

From the top of the village, the view is down across the roofs of the village itself.  A colourful 17th-century monastery sits up high at the eastern end of the village.  The Notre-Dame-des-Miracles monastery was built in the 17th century by the Franciscan monks who settled in Saorge in 1633.  The monastery was completed in 1660 and the baroque church, behind the monastery, was finished in 1681.

The Saorge Monastery

The Shady Lawn by the Monastery.  I enjoyed a wonderful siesta there after lunch, listening to the music coming from all around the village  
 

One of the best views of the town and its setting is from the terrace of the monastery in the olive groves outside the eastern end of Saorge.  This 17th century monastery is itself a classified historic monument.