Being a resident of the area, I see this monument to hubris every day. Even in the state it is in, it is visible and stricking from afar, both from the land and especially from the sea.
One of the details that I have picked up about the La Tropheé des Alpes is that it was made after Ceasar's armies opened the route...after 200 years of being fought off by the locals. The Romans had sea routes to France (and beyond) for hundreds of years, but somehow the locals kept this land route closed. The locals were then enslaved to build the monument to Augustus. Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.
Frank Delaney ~ Ireland
I thought about you when we expectedly turned up at La Turbie. We must have another drink or two in Villefranche sometime.
The bloody French - being difficult with foreigners even then :-)
In the museum there is a video about the history of the monument which includes a list of about 45 tribes "pacified" - it's done as a list moving in perspective into the background - it seems endless. But then one thinks of the Monty Python: "What did the Romans do for us?" :-) Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner - that I moved to Nice.
