SAINT-PAUL-LEZ-DURANCE
Dept. Bouches du
Rhône, France.
Remains of a Gallo-Roman villa
are at the site known as Les Convents, up the river from
the Mirabeau pass on a plateau overlooking the Durance.
Excavations, still incomplete, have revealed a complex
of walls built of regular coursed and mortared rubble.
A small private bath consists of a praefurnium, a hot
room with hypocaust, and a pool. Pottery finds date
from between the 2d c. (La Graufesenque) and the
6th (gray-figured Early Christian ware). The villa appears to have been destroyed by fire, but a mediaeval structure was later built on part of these remains.
J. DENEAUVE