Barcelonnette

Barcelonnette is a small town and commune in the Southern French Alps, in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence département, of which it is a sous-préfecture, in the Ubaye Valley.

The city's name means "little Barcelona" in French. The city and the region around has been the center of French immigration wave to the Americas (mostly Mexico ) at the end 19th/ beginning 20th century. Families which had prospered abroad came back and built the huge mansions that one can see all over the town called "Meson Mexique". Today, a big community of Barcelonettes live in Mexico City and the city of Puebla in Mexico. The most notorious of these descendants is Mexican comedian Eugenio Derbez.

Geography

It is built at a height of 3717 ft. on the right bank of the Ubaye river, on which it is the most well-known place.

Miscellaneous

It is mainly a tourist and resort centre, serving many ski lodges.

Barcelonnette is situated in a wide and very fertile valley, and is surrounded by many villas, called "Maisons Mexicaines" (Mexican houses), which where built by natives who have made their fortune in Mexico.

This article is licenced under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Barcelonnette".