From Provence to Piedmont In the mid-15th century, the great transhumance movements left Provence’s desiccated plains in spring to “make the journey” (far la Routo, in Occitan) to the Stura Valley’s summer pastures via the Maddalena Pass, in search of new mountain grazing land necessitated by the increasing size of flocks.
In the best years, between 50 and 60,000 sheep travelled from the Crau and Camargue Plains to graze in the mountains of present-day Piedmont.
The great transhumance created unchangeable ties between territories. Many of the pastoralists now active in Provence came from Piedmont’s Occitan valleys, the Stura Valley in particular.
