<%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> Les Tours de Merle

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Les Tours de Merle, juin 28.

The Tours are a cluster of tiny but tall towers that were built between 1200 and 1500 by a succession of clans of robber barons.

The name 'Merle' is derived from Latin. It has two unrelated translations: 'blackbird' or 'remote'.

Either one might be applicable. The original occupants, blackbirds, were notorious for exacting 'tolls' from travellers crossing the ford hundreds of feet below the castle.

Alternately, the site of the tours is ridiculously remote, tucked away on an outcropping at the bottom of a gorge tens kilometers from any town.