Peyresq (from le pays des pierres, or the land of stones)[1] is a French village in the commune of Thorame-Haute in France, perched on a rocky outcrop of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence at 1,528 metres above sea level.

In 1952, Georges Lambeau, director of the Académie des Beaux-Arts at Namur, was searching the region for a site for a holiday camp for his students[4] and found Peyresq almost completely abandoned and almost all its houses in ruins.

His friend Toine Smets, an entrepreneur from Brussels, decided to finance the project.

According to the historian Louise Sgaravizzi,[5] in 1953 of 53 houses 24% were habitable, 40% needed restoration and 16% were in ruins (the majority on what is now called the cour des Métiers).

At the same time, Toine Smets revealed Peyresq to Lucien and Jane Jacquet, who founded the association Pro Peyresq, soon joined by Jacques Waefelaer and his wife Jacqueline, respectively treasurer and "responsable de l'intendance" (économat).