Alba-la-Romaine (French pronunciation: [alba la ʁɔmɛn]; Occitan: Aps) is a commune in the Ardèche department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Southern France.

Alba-la-Romaine is located some 5 km west of Montélimar, Drôme on a mountain ridge overlooking the Rhône river valley.

[3] There are extensive areas of farmland in the commune especially following the ridge line from north to south as well as steep mountain slopes.

The assumption of a lowland habitat can also be used as the excavations to the west of the "St. Peter" site have yielded the remains of stone tools dating from the late third millennium.

At the location of two "domus" south-east of the "home field Lauzun" site, a habitat was found of La Tène III (first century BC.)

The discovery of imported ceramics of "Campanian type A" which debris was also collected in "Saint-Pierre" such as collars, handles, and lips of wine amphorae from Italy and some Allobrogian currency issued in the third quarter of the 1st century AD revealed a long term relationship with the Romans before the invasion.

When Bituitos, the Chief of the Arverni people who were located beyond the Cevennes, was defeated in 121 BC by the Roman consul Quintus Fabius Maximus Allobrogicus, Alba was already the capital of the Helviens territory which corresponded approximately to the current department of the Ardeche.

They obtained the title of allies and friends of Rome and Julius Caesar observed, on his arrival in Gaul, that they were independent and had their own customs and administration.

"The Starting point of the Roman roads to Valence, Vienne, and Lyon by the banks of the Rhone, another to Bourg-Saint-Andéol, Narbonne, and finally to Gergovie.

Until its peak in the second century, Alba developed on two axes: south on the terraces of Escoutay and north in the "Bagnols" district located near the valley the Rhone below the Massif Central.

Percentage Distribution of Age Groups in Alba-la-Romaine and Ardèche Department in 2017 Source: INSEE[12][13] "At Alba Helvienne in the province of Narbonne, a vine has been created that loses its bloom in a day and is therefore very robust.

Pliny the Elder wrote this in 65 AD, probably refderring to table grapes, but this text attests to the presence of the vine in Helvie at that time.

The Soil: Vines are cultivated on the south side of Coiron, on the hillside of Mount Juliau, and on the banks of the Escoutay river.

This monumental centre consists of a forum (still buried under vines), a basilica, two temples, a curia, a small local senate, and two enigmatic buildings as their architecture leaves no tangible indication as to their function.

On 15 September 1948, the painter André Lhote published in the newspaper Combat an article that described "the stony streets of Alba, its walls irregular checkerboards with alternate haphazardly arranged black and white stones, which makes this a wonderful material, a little austere, that is found throughout the Ardèche roads.

What is the artist, the intellectual has his nest egg, one or two dozen surplus notes that could be put into the work to be done: save a beautiful old house which miraculously survived the war and universal contempt, moreover to ensure a noble vacation in a country where the most capricious combinations of natural elements abound?".