Plan-d'Aups-Sainte-Baume (; Provençal: ''Lo Plan d’Aups de la Santa Bauma'') is a
commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
in the
Var
Var or VAR may refer to:
Places
* Var (department), a department of France
* Var (river), France
* Vār, Iran, village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran
* Var, Iran (disambiguation), other places in Iran
* Vár, a village in Obreja commune, Ca ...
department
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
in the
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (; or , ; commonly shortened to PACA; en, Provence-Alps-French Riviera, italic=yes; also branded as Région Sud) is one of the eighteen administrative regions of France, the far southeastern on the mainland. Its pref ...
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
in southeastern
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
. It lies to the north of the
Sainte-Baume
The Sainte-Baume ( Provençal: ''Massís de la Santa Bauma'' according to classical orthography and ''La Santo Baumo'' according to mistralian orthography) is a mountain ridge spreading between the departments of Bouches-du-Rhône and Var in So ...
mountain range.
History
Second World War
In June 1944, at the aftermath of
D-Day
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...
when the French Resistance went on an offensive against the German occupiers, the hills near Plan-d'Aups were the site of a bloody battle. Some 200
Maquis
Maquis may refer to:
Resistance groups
* Maquis (World War II), predominantly rural guerrilla bands of the French Resistance
* Spanish Maquis, guerrillas who fought against Francoist Spain in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War
* The network ...
had set up a camp there, commanded by SOE agent Robert Burdett. They were attacked by large German forces. Though taken by surprise due to a faulty placing of guards, the Maquis did inflict considerable casualties on the Germans and many of them managed to escape into the surrounding mountains.Evelyn Le Chene, "Watch for Me by Moonlight" (wartime experiences of Robert Burdett), Corgi, London 1974
Geography
Climate
Plan-d'Aups-Sainte-Baume has a
hot-summer Mediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...
(
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
''Csa''). The average annual temperature in Plan-d'Aups-Sainte-Baume is . The average annual rainfall is with November as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around . The highest temperature ever recorded in Plan-d'Aups-Sainte-Baume was on 28 June 2019; the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 4 February 2012.