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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 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 Notre-Dame-de-Valvert chapel, built of Annot sandstone, was once the church of a Lérins priory. It’s the austerity of this undecorated building in its rural setting that makes it so attractive.

Built atop a rocky promontory, the château is at the center of an architectural ensemble: to the south, a building known as “le château neuf”; to the southwest, a cemetery; to the west, the parish church; and to the north, a pond and a farm.