Blieux

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title: "Blieux" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["communes-of-alpes-de-haute-provence"] topic_path: "general/communes-of-alpes-de-haute-provence" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blieux" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox French commune"]

Field	Value
name	Blieux
native name	oc
commune status	Commune
image	Clue de La Melle.JPG
caption	A ravine in the territory of the Blieux commune
image coat of arms	Blason Blieux.svg
arrondissement	Castellane
canton	Riez
INSEE	04030
postal code	04330
mayor	Gérard Collomp
term	2020–2026
coordinates
elevation m	950
elevation min m	831
elevation max m	1921
area km2	56.8
population
population date
population footnotes
::

Blieux (; ) is a rural commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France.

History

The commune of Blieux first appeared on maps in 1100.

Much later, during the French Revolution, records show that the residents of Blieux had created a political club (patriotic society), which was very common at the time. (See Jacobin Club).

Name of the commune

According to Ernest Nègre, the first recorded name for the commune, Bleus, was derived from the Occitan word bleusse, meaning 'dry'. This was likely a reference to the local soil. By contrast, Charles Rostaing argues that the name derives from the pre-Indo-European root word, *BL, meaning 'mountain in the form of a spur'.

La Melle, the name of a nearby hamlet, comes from the Celtic word, mello, meaning an elevated location.

Economy

Historically, Blieux was a pastoral community, with a yearly alpine grazing cycle known as transhumance. As with much of Provence, tourism the primary source of economic activity today.

Geography

The village is located at an altitude of 950m, in the valley formed by a tributary of the river Asse, known as the 'Asse de Blieux'.

Hamlets

le Bas-Chadoul
la Melle
la Tuilière
Thon
La Castelle

Summits and passes

Mont Chiran (1905 m)
le Grand Mourre (1898 m)
Crête de Montmuye (Montmuye ridge) (Highest point: 1621 m)
Le Mourre de Chanier ( 1930 m)

Demographics

|source = INSEE |percentages = pagr |align = left |1968 |59 |1975 |54 |1982 |59 |1990 |57 |1999 |59 |2009 |56 |2014 |59 |2020 |55

With the exception of those that have been totally abandoned, Blieux is one of the communities in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department that has experienced the greatest population decline from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries.

Inhabitants are known as Blieuxois (masculine) and Blieuxoises (feminine) in French.

References

(2 December 2020). "Répertoire national des élus: les maires".
de La Torre, Michel. (1989). "Alpes-de-Haute-Provence : le guide complet des 200 communes".
Patrice Alphand, « Les Sociétés populaires», ''La Révolution dans les Basses-Alpes'', Annales de Haute-Provence, bulletin de la société scientifique et littéraire des Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, no. 307, 1989, pp. 296-298
Ernest Nègre, ''[[Toponymie générale de la France]] : étymologie de 35 000 noms de lieux'', Genève : Librairie Droz, 1990. Volume II : ''Formations dialectales''. Notice 23793, p 1281
[[Charles Rostaing]], ''Essai sur la toponymie de la Provence (depuis les origines jusqu’aux invasions barbares)'', Laffite Reprints, Marseille, 1973, p. 85
Rostaing, p. 206
[https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/7633058?geo=COM-04030#ancre-POP_T1 Population en historique depuis 1968], INSEE

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