This year, despite the confinement, the washhouse has its nursery -

M. Bernouin / ANP / 20 Minutes

  • The Christmas holidays are approaching. 

    20 Minutes

     makes you discover different traditions.

  • In the Alpes-Maritimes, the most authentic attraction is in Lucéram, where a “crèche circuit” is organized every year.

  • More than 400 projects of all sizes and styles are to be discovered in the village.

For any crèche lover, Lucéram (Alpes-Maritimes) is Mecca.

25 km from Nice, this village with winding streets, nestled in the hollow of the Paillon valley, has a crazy charm.

But for more than twenty years, in December, it's been something else: each of its corners reveals a surprise.

In the labyrinth of its medieval streets, nativity scenes are absolutely everywhere.

On the stairs leading to the houses, under the stone vaults, on the copings and behind the windows, in the church, the chapels and even at the back of the old bread oven!

In half a walnut shell

There are said to be over 400 in all.

Some huge, like the one that represents the entire village over ten meters long;

others tiny, like the one made from half a walnut shell.

In this village of just over 1,000 inhabitants, everyone makes a point of participating.

For his Provencal-type creation, very plant-based, Nicolas will harvest moss in the mountains before placing it on the steps of his house.

A little higher in the village, life-size silhouettes have taken place in the shelter of a vault.

Another creation, this one floating, decorates the municipal wash house.

50,000 visitors

Original or monumental creations, but not only.

The most modest, assemblages of santon beans found in the cakes of kings of previous years, or made from odds and ends, are not the least interesting.

Especially when you get caught up in the game of finding them all, to the back of a letterbox or in the cracks of a stone wall.

This tradition attracts nearly 50,000 visitors each year.

Except this year: the coronavirus epidemic, with the ban on moving more than 20 kilometers from your home, but also the Vigipirate plan, reinforced since the attack on Notre-Dame basilica in Nice, deprived Lucéram of its “23rd crèche circuit”!

“I'm sick of it, I can't sleep anymore!

It's a terrible year, ”sighs Christiane Ricort, president of the Lucéram country house, at the origin of the event which was to begin this Saturday.

So there are a few nativity scenes in the village, such as the one carved from a tree trunk, so heavy that it never leaves its site, or the one made with old agricultural tools and horseshoes, which decorates the whole area. year the facade of its creator, but the party, the real one, will not take place.

To compensate for this “free” year, the Lucéram country house promises that it will very quickly offer a “virtual visit”, with photos and videos of the achievements that have been immortalized in recent years.

Until 2021, and the hope of seeing the reappearance of nurseries on all street corners of Lucéram.

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