Located 1,550 m above the village of Tende, in the Roya valley and near the Italian border, the hamlet of Casterino is again accessible by road, which reopened on Friday.
It was the last still isolated since the storm Alex of 2020. This tourist place and its hotels could no longer be reached by departmental road 91, badly damaged during the bad weather of October 2, 2020 which had killed eighteen people and destroyed many infrastructure.
It “reopened this morning at 10 a.m.,” the Alpes-Maritimes departmental council said on Friday.
The community specifies that new works are planned, but that traffic will remain possible, in an “alternating” way.
Starting point for the “Valley of Wonders”
To make this axis passable again and secure it, the department has spent 25 million euros, including six for the construction of an avalanche structure.
“We have continuous access again, it changes our lives”, reacted Paul Servel, who operates the Sainte-Marie-Madeleine inn and is delighted to be “full for Christmas and New Year’s Day” .
"But we know that the village's economy will not really pick up until next summer," he added.
Starting point in summer towards the "Valley of Wonders" and its 40,000 rock engravings, Casterino, which has only about ten inhabitants all year round, offers Nordic skiing and snowshoeing trails in winter.
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