Digne-les-Bains / Barrême
From Digne-les-Bains, head for Mézel, in the heart of the Asse valley. Further on, the route crosses the boundary of the Verdon Regional Nature Park and reaches Majastres, which has the distinction of being the least populated commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence département. After Majastres, a dry-stone path leads downhill to the Clue de la Melle, on the Riou d'Ourgeas. The route takes you through a fairly flat landscape: an area of pastureland, with lots of stones. You follow old paths and ford streams amid huge boulders. Before continuing downhill on an old stony road on the mountainside. Wilderness, incredible scenery, you're all alone in the world. It's much greener before you reach a narrowing and an old path overlooking the gorge of the Riou d'Ourgeas ravine. The path, bordered by a wrought-iron railing, must have seen a lot of people. Once you've crossed the gorge, you'll reach Barrême, a stopover on the Route Napoléon, so famous for its ammonite fossils that it gave its name to a period of the secondary era: the Barremian.
Gradients and elevation
Répartition des pentes
Road types
Surface
Don't miss
- Mézel: an endearing little village a few kilometers from Digne-les-Bains, in the heart of the Asse valley. Pretty facades, picturesque fountains and wash-houses, remarkable 16th and 17th century gates...
- Clue de la Melle: the Ravin du Riou d'Ourgeas narrows into narrow, deep gorges shortly before reaching the chapelle de la Melle and the Bergerie de Haute Melle, a Mecca of the Alpes de Haute-Provence Resistance.
- Barrême : geological museum around the collection of paleontologist Louis Maurel, former lavender and other perfume plant distillery. Barrême is also a station on the famous Train des Pignes linking Nice to Digne-les-Bains.
