Villa Durango (1906), architect Pierre Julien
Le Lauzanier; No 33, Avenue Ernest Pellotier
The villas mexicaines of Barcelonnette
Many stunning villas built in the “Mexican Colonial” style have survived in Barcelonnette and Jausiers in the Valley of the Ubayé in the Alpes of Haut-Provence. The first villas were built by returning émigrés in the late nineteenth century, the French Belle Époque, when development in the valley was being systematically encouraged by Paris following the insurrection of 1851 against the rule of Napoléon II and the Treaty of Turin of 1860.
Some new proprietors had found fortune having joined the two French interventions in Mexico (supported by England and Spain), including the Battle of Camerone (Camarón) of 1863, commemorated annually since by the French Foreign Legion. Others returned from commercial success in Arnaudville, Louisiana.
No 12, Avenue Ernest Pellotier
No 31, Avenue Ernest Pellotier
Villa François Albert (1900), No 12, Avenue Ernest Pellotier
Avenue des trois frères Arnaud, Barcelonnette; honouring the first emigrants to Mexico from the Valley of the Ubayé, who left in 1821
