Route map
Combining the northern and southern routes along the chasms of Gorges du Verdon gives you a 113-kilometre round trip along ever-new faces of the impressive gorge. I describe the tour here starting with the northern route from Castellane. Can’t make the complete round trip? Then at least drive Route des Crêtes, the northern route on the D23.
Clue de Chasteuil
At Clue de Chasteuil and Clue de Carajuan, the Verdon valley briefly contracts into a narrow passage. It has only just been possible to squeeze the road between the vertical gorge wall and the river. It looks great from the car. Stopping for a photo is out of the question, as there is simply no room. Instead, a photo with the view of Clue de Chasteuil just before entering it. As a cliffhanger.
Point Sublime
A bulging car park, teeming people, shop stalls and a restaurant. Without even giving it a single thought, I drive on.
Route des Crêtes
Where the chasms of Gorges du Verdon are at their deepest, Route des Crêtes (D23) runs over the edge. The road seems to have no other purpose than to take you past a series of viewpoints, to gaze over the edge into the gorge.
Halfway down Route des Crêtes there is a one-way section. To be able to drive the road in its entirety, you need to start east of La Palud-sur-Verdon and drive clockwise.
Belvédère de Trescaïre haut
The first viewpoint along Route des Crêtes is Belvédère de Trescaïre. Actually there are two lookouts, a high one and a low one in two hairpin bends just above one another. Since high sounds better for a viewpoint, I make a stop there.
Belvédère de la Carelle
Belvédère de la Carelle is also located in a hairpin bend, right next to the road. The gorge is slightly wider here, giving you far views over the river.
Belvédère de l’Escalès
There is nothing along the road that indicates a viewpoint. There is only a car park where an old camper van and a car are parked. It is that when preparing the trip at home I marked this location as way point in the navigation app, otherwise I would have passed by unnoticed. Not far from the car park I see a footpath leading into the bushes. I follow it and end up at the edge of the gorge. There are no paved walkways or railings here. Above a deep inlet in the gorge wall a cable has been stretched between the rocks. A tightrope walker is practising on it. He just cannot manage to find his balance while standing.
Belvédère de la Dent d’Aire
The favourite hangout of the griffon vultures in Gorges du Verdon. They hover on the thermals above the gorge and every now and then one settles down against the rock face. The cavities in the rock face appear to be the reason that the vultures like to hang around at this place.
Belvédère de la Gorge de Guegues
The road runs right along the gulch and is so narrow that there is one-way traffic. Because it is significantly higher here than on the other side of the gorge, the perspective is very different from the other viewpoints.
Belvédère des Malines
Belvédère de Bau Béni
The gorge is so narrow here that you can hardly see the river flow. Along the road are several parking areas. I don’t think I am on the official Belvédère de Bau Béni, but in terms of views it will make little difference.
Lookout Lac de Sainte-Croix
A beautiful point with two different views. On one side you look out over the azure-blue reservoir Lac de Sainte-Croix. On the other side you can see the river flowing through the tail end of Gorges du Verdon. To get a good view of the latter, you have to walk a short distance along the road from the car park into the gorge.
Lookout Moustiers-Sainte-Marie
The village of Moustiers-Sainte-Marie is so beautifully situated under a colossal rock formation that it has to be part of a tour along the Gorges du Verdon viewpoints.
Lunch with a view
It’s always pretty tough to plan a lunch spot, is comes as it comes. Just before Aiguines, the ideal lunch spot suddenly reveals itself. A few picnic tables in the semi-shade of young trees, overlooking Lac de Sainte-Croix. One table is still free, next to an older French couple who have a bottle of red wine on the table with lunch. This is France through and through.
Belvédère de Vaumale
From a great height you have a view of the last part of Gorges du Verdon, where the gorge is already more of a valley again.
Balcon de la Mescla
Trigance
After Balcon de la Mescla the road bends away from the gorge. The landscape undulates gently, as if there were no Gorges du Verdon nearby.
See more of Gorges du Verdon
Although you see Gorges du Verdon from all sides during the scenic route, there is still one dimension missing: a descent into the gorge. For that the hike on Sentier de l’Imbut is highly recommended.
