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Presentation
Leaving Châtillon-en-Diois toward Menée pass, nicely trimmed boxwood border the road connecting Diois to Trièves. Road workers from Nonières, which began this fantasy – more than hundred years ago – , would be pleased and proud to see that the tradition still perpetuate. Forsaking on the right the road to Grimone pass, we climb up the Bez valley to Mensac, the first or five villages of Treschenu-Creyers. Then, going North, on a steeper and steeper road, we come through Menée. Should we turn left, we shall find Archiane, at the very bottom of the Archiane valley. Going straight ahead to Menée pass (highest pass of Drôme at 1457m), we reach les Nonières. from there, we still may climb up to Bénevise, overhanging the valley from abutments of Vercors. Needless to seek no longer, you will not find the village Treschenu… Because there is not. The commune is, in fact, one of the few in France which is not named after one of its villages. Creyers, totally deserted by its inhabitants in late 20th century, except for the Mensac hamlet, has been joined to Treschenu in 1972. With an area of more than 8000 hectares, Treschenu-Creyers, and its hindmost valleys into the mountains, is also one of the widest communes of Drôme department.
Between Vercors and Provence, the climate of this mountain land make the transition between tough alpine winters and dry, hot mediterranean summers, as testify its vegetation. According to the elevation and exposition, southern or northern, blue gentians and rhododendrons lie close to boxwood, thyme and lavender. In the past, the land was fully devoted to agriculture and breeding. From its gorgeous natural resources and the beauty of its places, it find today a new valorization with tourism. With breeding, cultures and craftsman activity it makes the professional environment.
Véronique Pitte
From Un homme, un village, Séverine Beaumier, Centre alpin et rhodanien d'ethnologie, Grenoble 1978 ; Le Guide du Diois, éditions A Die, 1995 ; Chroniques de Treschenu et Creyers, Centre social, culturel et sportif de Treschenu-Creyers ; L'Almanach du Vieux Dauphinois, 1997 ; archives de la mairie de Treschenu-Creyers.