High Provence

Walking in France: High Provence short walk
High Provence short walk

A six-day walk in high Provence from Saint-André-les-Alpes to Gréoux-les-Bains, following the GR4 (except for the first day), through fields of lavender and Roman ruins.

This was part of a longer walk that we did in 2002.

Getting to Saint-André-les-Alpes

From Paris, we took the TGV from the Gare de Lyon to Nice, a journey of six hours.

After two hours we were at Avignon and the rest of the time was spent getting through Marseille and crawling along the cliffs of the spectacular Cote d’Azur.

In Nice it was necessary to change to another station a few streets away, to catch the narrow-gauge local train known as la Pigne (the pine-cone), which is not part of the normal French railway system, the SNCF. This is a link to more information about la Pigne.

Speeding south on the TGV

Whilst waiting at the station café, sheltered from the torrential rain, we were presented with a long-stemmed red rose by a socialist candidate for the parliamentary elections next week, the dear man.

La Pigne was a little rail-car, packed with commuters, which laboured up the valley of the Var, shedding passengers at every stop.

Almost three hours later we crossed into the valley of the Verdon through a tunnel and were soon deposited at Saint-André-les-Alpes (the train goes on to Digne-les-Bains).

The town has a couple of restaurants and the camping ground is not far along the road, so we had a pleasant evening.

Our route for this walk

Our route for this walk

Day 1: Saint-André-les-Alpes to Castellane

Day 2: Castellane to Rougon

Day 3: Rougon to la Palud-sur-Verdon

Day 4: La Palud-sur-Verdon to Moustiers-Sainte-Marie

Day 5: Moustiers-Sainte-Marie to Riez

Day 6: Riez to Gréoux-les-Bains

This map shows accommodation icons for each night. Zoom in on a particular icon to see its precise location.

You can also see this map using Google Earth and take a virtual flight along our route.

Back to six-day short walks

Back to top