Ristolas (historical and cultural dictionary) 
Ristolas
Ristolas shelter for the road, taking the south-east, following the Guil, on the right bank. The left bank is covered with forests of larch wood (Jassaygue). At the foot of the slope, passing a path wide enough and shaded in summer and, in Old Town Ristolas, serves in winter ski trails. On the map of Cassini (eighteenth century), it is referred to as the "highway of Piedmont." On the right bank, mid slope, a path connects to Abriès Ristolas. It passes through the hamlets of Little Varence (or Patarel) and Varence (1840 m), located in the town shelter. The Varence abandoned in 1860 and the last house collapsed a century later, was the seventeenth and eighteenth century the cradle of the family Aviény, many of whom migrated to the Palatinate after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. In 1665, Jean Aviény, who bought land Abriès was a doctor in law and medicine. The possession of these two grades, while very rare, confirms that Queyrassins had reached a high level of education. Jean Aviény remained in Queyras until his death, but his son, who refused to abjure, emigrated.
Ristolas (1600 m) is the most common size of Queyras. It has 8,336 hectares against 7540 to Arvieux, 7508 and 3970 to Abriès Needle. Part of its territory is a vast game reserve, where there are large herds of chamois and sheep also. It is also the least populated town of Queyras: there are about sixty people at present, while in 1763, it had about nine hundred inhabitants.
Ristolas is on the left bank of the Guil. It is built on the alluvial fan of the torrent of Ségure which divides into two parts: the main group, where the town hall, and Maisonneuve, on the left bank of the Segura. The Cassini map (eighteenth century) was made a hamlet on the right bank of the Guil, opposite Ristolas named "Dela the Aquamarine."
Village history is punctuated by disasters like the other villages in the valley of the Guil. Floods have devastated fields and washed away houses in 1408, 1469, 1728, 1957. In the fifteenth century, dykes were built to prevent the village was submerged by the river Segura. But floods, too violent, carried the dikes. In 1631, the plague decimated the village, where "there remained only nine married men." This epidemic had also victims in Queyras, where, according to Jacques Gondret "1123 people died the scourge. " A chapel was built in-New Homes in honor of St. Roch, "protector of the plague" and the day of Saint Roch was long celebrated with fervor.
Built near the border, Ristolas was looted and burned in 1690 and 1691. In 1800, the Marquis of Angrogna penetrated with troops in the Upper Guil and plundered the village. The church, dedicated to Saint-Marcellin, is located in the City. The date of 1475 was engraved on a lintel, but remodeling and restorations made it lose its original appearance.
In the early 1990s, few people lived by farming. The huge farms, which are numerous in the village were built after 1945, due to war damages paid by the Germans and Italians to compensate for the destruction of 1940 and 1944. Today, many of these farms are converted into hotels, lodges or resorts. Like other agricultural communes Queyras Ristolas lives mainly from tourism.
Valley Ségure
The path leading to the Peak from the top of Ségure Ristolas south-west, then south, above the torrent of Ségure. The left bank, very steep, is also very furrowed. Beyond the ridge lies the Valley Peinin (sharing needles). The right bank is forested. The trail leaves the woods, turns south-eastwards to reach the lakes Lacroix (2400 m). A path on the left provides access to the Pic de Segur. The summit (2980 m) is easily accessible. The valley is surrounded by high peaks. Those of the right bank - Maloqueste Peaks (2610 m), Chabrière (2820 m), Ségure (2980 m) - separated from the valley and Foreant Egourgéou. At the bottom of the valley, the crest of the Fonz, the tops of Lausaces or Grand Queyras (3114 m) and peak Caramagne, pierced through the neck of Ségure (2787 m) and breccia from the pinnacle (2922 m), separate Segura Valley Acute Agnelle (Molina and Fontgillarde).
The
The Monta Monta is on the right bank of the Guil, at 1660 m altitude at the foot of the slopes covered with meadows and dominated by the head of the pelvis (2930 m). In this village, where Emily Carle, author of The Soup wild herbs, served as a substitute teacher in 1924, there is only one house, converted into gites, and the church, the rest of village was destroyed in 1940 and 1944, during the fighting in World War II (see "disaster in the twentieth century").
The history of La Monta is replete with fire (in 1691-1692) and avalanches: the 1885 has destroyed a dozen houses on the walls where there were some nice entries.
Trails
The Monta is now a step in the crossing of Queyras by GR 58. We're going to shelter at Monta Valpreveyre by the culet Jilly Jilly Ridge, Mount Peyra Plata. De La Monta, we reach the refuge by Agnel Echalp and Col Vieux.
towards the pelvis (2930 m)
A La Monta, take the GR 58 that runs through meadows and woods Chatellard up the ridge, called Mountain Peyra Plata (2643 m). A Ridge, we let the GR 58 which continues to collette Jilly and inclines to the right, heading north-east, to begin the climb relatively easy pelvis, sometimes referred to as the head of the pelvis.
To Pass The Cross (2300 m).
the east of the hamlet, take the trail that climbs into the alpine meadows, and along the wooden Chatellard, follows the torrent of Forelle Combe, past the refuge Napoleon, built in 1857 through a bequest from Napoleon 1st Hautes-Alpes to thank the people of the positive it was him on his return from Elba. The
Pass Trail Cross was "Piedmont's high road" on the Cassini map. He was very popular. Many went to the Piedmontese market shelter and across the Queyras, while in winter the shepherds led by Col Queyrassins their herds on the plains of Piedmont. Travelers were killed on this trail in winter. In 1730, thirty people died in the mountains. Also the inhabitants of Abriès long have they asked to build a shelter, which afterwards was very late, because they feared it was used to the Vaudois or smugglers.
Several projects have been developed to make the pass a communication channel between France and Italy. It is planning to pass a line of railway which would have connected Marseille to Turin. But it failed. In the 1920s there was a question yet to drill a tunnel to accommodate a paved road. Gen. William, in The Queyras (pp. 119-194) makes a very precise statement of these projects.
At a little over an hour of the neck on the right, Mount Parroussin (2677 m), easily accessible. From the pass we descend into the Val Pellice where the shelter where Jervis and returned to France to Valpreveyre, shelter or Le Roux, by the neck or neck Urine Malaurie. One can also access the Cross Pass by Echalp, hamlet is located 2 kilometers from La Monta.
The Echalp
is the last hamlet in the valley of the Guil, 2 km from the Monta and 1690 m altitude. Beyond the Echalp, the valley became head south, southeast. "Echalp" is a common name, as "Échalp" or "Chalp" in the Alps and the Queyras: The Chalp d'Arvieux, Chalp The Saint-Veran. "The Echalp" seems to be a corruption of the plural "The Chalp" which means "sloping fields" or "barrens" or "pasture".
The hamlet is ancient history, since we found there Gallic burial period, and is quite similar to that of La Monta: incursions Vaudois, who raided the village in 1691-92, and avalanche that destroyed several homes, so those of 1885 and 1948. Today, the hamlet is inhabited except in summer. Farms were turned into second homes.
Trails
Towards Cross Pass (2300 m) at a little over an hour's Echalp. The trail through the forest eventually join, just before the pass, the trail riding.
To Pass Old and refuge Agnel. We cross the Guil, tracing the path that allows Monta entering lakes and Egourgéou Foreant and, after the pass Old, joined the Agnel pass road. That stage between La Monta GR 58 and Refuge Agnel.
Beyond the Echalp, barely crossed the Guil is on the left bank, the place called "the fallen rocks, formed at the end of the nineteenth century by a collapse cliff. Some of these rocks are now climbing school.
A little further, beyond the car park is closed to traffic. At right, the trail begins ecological Pre Michel fitted by technicians of the Regional Park (see "Landscapes"). Continuing the path, we reached the lookout on Mount Viso Viso of the refuge, Lake Lestio, sources of the Guil, the neck of the Traversette where, in the fifteenth century, was drilled a tunnel and which the authors speak Queyrassins.
photo of Mary-Corinne Devilliers - in Cameroon 
