Discover the villages

Set among centuries-old chestnut trees, dotted with restored stone barns, Braux offers superb views of the sandstone cliffs of the Coulomp valley.

Situated on the banks of the Vaïre river, Le Fugeret spreads out like a fan, but the commune extends well beyond the central village, into the Annot sandstone massif, and is made up of numerous hamlets, including Bontès, Argenton and Chabrières.

Perched on the edge of a limestone plateau, the village of Méailles overlooks the Vaïre valley from a magnificent vantage point. Traces of human occupation dating back to the Neolithic period have been found in the village’s caves.

Overlooking the Coulomp river, Saint Benoît is perched on a rocky knoll ravaged by erosion, which emerges in the middle of meadows emphasizing its still agricultural character. It is built in a circle around the St Benoît church.

At the foot of the Bernarde massif, a narrow, winding road leads to Ubraye. This small village still stands on its medieval site, dominated by a hill where a castle once stood.

Dominated to the north by the imposing Chamatte peak, Vergons takes its name from the Verguniens, a Ligurian tribe that occupied the area in ancient times. Today, it is a pleasant stopover.

Perched on a mound in the heart of the Haut Verdon valley, Beauvezer, whose name means “beautiful to look at”, was an important wool-spinning center. A few buildings still stand, bearing witness to this flourishing period in the valley’s economy.

Between the Issole and Verdon valleys lies the pastoral village of Thorame-Haute. The agricultural landscape with its herds and the Lac des Sagnes are ideal for family picnics and fishing. A rich cultural heritage (bridge, church, wash-house).

Located at an altitude of over 1,000m, Thorame-Basse offers a wealth of opportunities for outdoor activities (hiking, mountain biking, fishing…). The village’s wetlands are also of great interest for the preservation of biodiversity.

At the gateway to the Mercantour, Villars-Colmars is surrounded by mountains, notably the “Croix du Puy” and the “Gardette”, which overlook the village. The village offers a wide range of outdoor activities: hiking, horse-riding, mountain biking, climbing, fishing…

Perched on a rocky outcrop, the village of Castellet-lès-Sausses, named after an ancient fortified castle and a salt spring, offers superb panoramic views over the Var valley.

Clinging to a rocky spur, the village is enclosed within its ancient wall. From the 14th to the 19th century, it played a strategic role in the Chanan valley, on the border with the County of Nice.

It was a large agricultural estate, organized around an isolated church dedicated to Saint Pierre, that gave rise to the present-day commune. Today, it is the extreme southeastern tip of the Alpes de Haute Provence.

Topped by a castle, the village is built in a fan-shape on a steep slope. The winding lanes allow you to discover nooks and crannies and admire the pink-orange facades of most of the houses.

The commune of Val de Chalvagne is the result of the merger of three communes: Castellet-Saint-Cassien, Montblanc and Villevieille. These isolated hamlets are home to two 16th-century castles.

Clinging to the mountainside and dominated by the Teillon and Crémon rivers, Demandolx offers a sublime panorama of the Chaudanne and Castillon lakes. The creation of these artificial lakes drowned part of the commune’s territory.

Formerly known as La Garde de Dieu, the village takes its name from its role as Castellane’s advanced military stronghold. It lies at the foot of the Teillon rock, which was home to an oppidum from the early Middle Ages.

Peyroules, more than a village, is in fact a group of four hamlets spread across a plateau between valley and rocky outcrops: La Rivière, the main hamlet occupying the center of the commune, La Bâtie to the west, La Foux to the east and Mousteiret to the south.

Surrounded by mountains, nestling at the bottom of the valley where the Estéron river rises, the village of Soleilhas, as its name suggests, “looks towards the sun”.

A village reached by skirting the Vauclause rocks, a natural barrier at the entrance to the Ivoire valley, Allons is surrounded by the remains of four square towers.

After skirting Lac de Castillon as far as Pont St Julien, you’ll discover Angles set against the slope in a bend of the valley. The road leading to the village, well known to geologists, runs alongside a series of Barremian rocks.

The commune of Barrême is world-renowned for its wealth of fossils, particularly ammonites, and is proud to have given its name to an era of the secondary era: the Barrêmien.

A small village in the Middle Ages, Blieux was built on a rocky spur on the right bank of the Asse. The village is surrounded by a cirque of mountains, including Mont – Chiran, home to an astronomical observatory.

The commune of Chaudon-Norante, on the banks of the Asse and topped by the imposing Dourbes bar, is made up of three main hamlets: Norante, Chaudon and La Clappe, where Napoleon stopped on his return from Elba.

The commune of Clumanc is unusual in that it has no central town: in fact, it’s a collection of small hamlets scattered along the Asse river.
Farming and livestock rearing are still practiced today.

This commune is made up of two villages: La Mure, at the confluence of the Issole and Verdon rivers, once famous for its cloth factories, and Argens, perched at an altitude of 1,400 m, where lavender and other aromatic plants are grown.

Nestled in a quiet valley where the Encure river flows, between green meadows and wooded hills, the village’s main source of income is agriculture and beekeeping. Once famous for its lavender, a handful of farmers still carry on the tradition.

Established along the road linking Digne to Saint André, Moriez was a thriving business in the 19th and 20th centuries, with the manufacture of linen and the distillation of lavender. Its name comes from the Latin Muria, meaning salt, in connection with its salt well,

Situated at the confluence of the Asses de Clumanc, Moriez and Blieux, Saint-Jacques is known for its Barremian nummulites, fossils whose presence is promoted by the Réserve géologique de Haute Provence through a special site.

Deprived of part of its agricultural land when the Castillon dam was built, the village of Saint Julien du Verdon now sits on a balcony above the lake, offering superb 360° panoramic views and hosting a water sports center.

A belvedere overlooking the Asse valley at an altitude of 815 m, Saint-Lions has no coat of arms, as it only gained independence from the community of Barrême during the Directoire period. Today, it is a small village with a pastoral and agricultural vocation.

A former bishopric on the banks of the river Asse, Senez is a village steeped in history, with a rich and well-preserved cultural heritage. As a stopover on the imperial road, Napoleon stopped off to visit the cathedral, now a listed monument.

The seven hamlets that make up the commune of Tartonne occupy the bottom of the Haute Vallée de l’Asse. A starting point for many hiking and mountain biking trails, Tartonne is also home to many geological curiosities (Faille du Défens, fossils…).