Very high, it does not support a night watchman; if one installs one there, he will feel in the morning transported into the valley below without having experienced the anguish of falling or the terror of the impact on the ground; he will find himself deposited at the bottom without having felt touched or struck by anyone".

At the end of the Middle Ages, markets and fairs were in full swing and exchanges were organized which led to such a boom in the city that around 1500, it largely overflowed the walls.

After the glory, the Livronnais must go back to living in a devastated city where other misfortunes are added: Again the plague which makes dark cuts in the population, the agricultural difficulties of the middle of the century, the continual passages of troops, and from 1685, the religious persecutions which followed the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

The area started to recover around the middle of the 18th century: The silk processing industry was booming: spinning, milling, weaving and breeding silkworms created many jobs.

This period ended with the sound of arms of the fight between royalists and imperialists, on the bridge of Livron on 2 April 1815, while Napoleon returning from the Island of Elba had re-entered Paris.

This one, in November 1157, obtained from the Germanic emperor Frederic 1st Barbarossa the confirmation of all the temporal privileges of his Church and thus took rank among the great vassals of the Empire; he was at the head of an independent state with the right to mint coins and possessing a large number of places, including Livron, Loriol, Étoile, Allex, Montvendre, Montéléger, etc.

In the political field, for the sector of Livron, the bishops of Valence, the counts of Valentinois and the lords of La Voulte will be opposed throughout XIIIe and XIVe centuries; by intervening in their struggles, the Germanic Emperor and the King of France will do everything to extend their influence and enlarge their respective domains.

Between the counts of Valentinois and the bishops of Valence, an intermittent war lasting almost a hundred years would begin and continue to the great displeasure of the populations.

The small community was able to ensure control over the local bread production circuit by raising, in April 1412, the mills of Livron, the management of which weighed on the lord bishop.

And this one authorized, on 30 March 1423, the creation of a market in the locality, on Tuesday of each week, hoping thus to initiate an economic and demographic revival which he wished like the inhabitants.

Having served Pope Benedict XIII in the city of Avignon until 1413, he demanded the payment of unpaid wages and, faced with the refusal that was opposed to him, he had undertaken operations in the Comtat.

In the middle of the 15th century, in the consular accounts of Livron (where an already diversified administration functioned under the direction of elected inhabitants), the average both of receipts and of expenditure was around 177 florins (i.e. the value of 265 rows of wheat, that is to say about 12 tons).

This memorable siege, success for the besieged, will bring Livron into the great story; but the aftermath will be very difficult due to the depletion of resources and the damage caused, the old town being partially destroyed, a large part of its walls having served to reinforce the outer enclosure.

In the family environment, the Protestants maintained their faith which thus kept an astonishing vitality: the numerous burials "in the fields" that the Livronnais priest noted in his parish register bear proof of this.

But, from the month of June 1741, in front of the complaints of the inhabitants, it will be necessary to undertake to make estimate by experts the damage caused to certain Livronnais funds by the constructions of channels and the flooding of the grounds.

For example, on 7 January 1764, an accident almost cost the life of the Courrier de France: the cable of the ferry having broken, the car fell into the river and it took a lot of effort to save the man, the horse and the vehicle.

In connection with the works of the bridge, water intakes were established on the river which made it possible to supply a whole network of new canals intended for the irrigation of the plain.

In connection with the works of the bridge, water intakes were established on the river which made it possible to supply a whole network of new canals intended for the irrigation of the plain.

In connection with the works of the bridge, water intakes were established on the river which made it possible to supply a whole network of new canals intended for the irrigation of the plain.

In the years that preceded the Revolution, with population growth, there was an impoverishment of a large part of the peasantry; the latter could no longer buy land which, coveted by the privileged classes, saw its prices soar.

The mayor of Livron could write in 1831: "The remarkable progress of our population can be attributed to various causes (apart from the proliferation of marriages under the laws of conscription): in the vicinity of the department of Ardèche which annually dumps entire families , to the division of property which facilitated the establishment of these emigrants, to the care taken by the authority to protect them – in a way against the wishes of the natives who saw only a burden in their poverty.

The latter, in its withdrawal movement, chose to go up the Rhone Valley: the Germans took the National 7 in our region rather than the RN 86 or the departmental roads passing through Crest because these last two routes were too favorable to ambushes by the Ardèche or Drôme maquis.

To hinder the German retreat as much as possible, it was necessary to immediately destroy the bridges on the RN 7; but that of Livron posed a problem because the proximity of the town made any bombardment dangerous for the civilians.

After discussion at the Brunel farm, 3 km upstream, it was decided to go to the place of operation around 10 p.m. At 10:30 p.m., a reconnaissance group, composed of Henri Faure, Jean Mathon, Jacques Monier and Louis Valette, cautiously approached the RN 7; the guerrillas heard the singing of the Germans quartered near the bridge.

These, divided into two groups, Jean Didier and Marcel Testut on one side, Charles Bonnet and Élie Mourier on the other, began to dig, 6 m apart, two mine shafts on the keystone of the southernmost arch.

On the 19th, the Brigade of the American General Butler having come to take up position on the heights of Marsanne alongside the maquisards, many Germans tried to cross the Drôme much further downstream.

Transformation of the agglomeration (the bridge and the lower town): Until the middle of the 18th century, the village remained resolutely perched (less than twenty houses along the Grande Route until 1780!!!).

While the ferry obliged the traveler to mark a stop in Livron (we then often went up to the village while waiting for the boat to be ready), the bridge now made it possible to “burn” the old town.

Economic changes: With the development of irrigation (canals derived from the Drôme), the improvement of seeds, the use of fertilizers, the extension of artificial meadows, the progress of tools and the use of machines, agriculture experienced a wonderful boom after the first quarter of the 19th century.

So the inhabitants descend one by one into the lower town where the silk mills are ... where the canals derived from the Drôme have made the stony plain a marvel of freshness and agricultural wealth.