Barrême

Towns and Villages - by Provence Beyond

Villages > Barrême

Nearby:  | Annot 38 km | Castellane 24 km | Digne-les-Bains 30 km | Mezel 18 km | Moustiers-Sainte-Marie 53 km | Saint André-les-Alpes 21 km | Senez 5 km | Taulanne Clue 8 km |

Below: | Museums | Hiking | Dining | Lodging Hotels |

The town center, with a couple of outdoor cafés, is right on the busy N202, so take a five-minute walk up the pretty lane, over the footbridge by the weeping willows and past the old lavender distillery to the train station.

At the side of the station is an outdoor picnic area, with wooden benches and tables shaded by Giant Sequoias and pines a hundred-plus years old (like those at St. André-les-Alpes and Moriez).

Photo 3 and 4 were contributed by Bas Bruning from Holland.

Napoléon stopped overnight here, on 3 March 1815, and there is a plaque to this effect on the wall of a house at the side of the N85 in the center of town.

Museums & Sites

Barrême is named after a geological stage in the Lower Cretaceous period, and the town is located in an area rich in geological fossils. The tiny Train-des-Pignes station has a one-room geological museum dedicated to this period. This museum is small and personal, made by someone with love and care. It includes a large three-dimensional wall display of the different geological periods, charts, maps, and many local fossils.

Hiking

Maps:

IGN (1/25,000) #3441 OT "Barreme, Vallee de l'Asse"

Didier Richard (1/50,000) #19 "Haute Provence Verdon"

Barrême is surrounded by hills and mountains with peaks between 1700 and 2000 m, and several forests.
For a picnic hike, go out through the back of the town (north) and climb up to the Chapel St. Jean. You can sit on the hill (821 m) overlooking the town and see the valleys below and the surrounding hills. This is just less than an hour's climb, and only partly shaded, so it can get pretty hot in the summer. There's plenty of grass for picknicking, and you can shelter in the chapel if you're caught by a sudden shower (as we were).
Hikes marked by wooden signposts at the train station are for:

Montagne de Pieyes, 8 h

Château plus haut, 6 h. There's a ruin here, near a 1266 m peak northwest of Barrême.

Chaudon-Digne, 10 h. This trail will take you northwest, past the tiny village of Chaudon (at 1016 m) and on to Digne. This hike could be done as a "loop", using the Train des Pignes to return to your starting point.

Check the Hiking part of the St André page.

Dining

Hotel-Restaurant de la Gare. This is a small hotel-restaurant-café beside the station, with tables set out beneath the shade of climbing grape vines and huge lime trees; it's very quiet and very lovely. Its cuisine familiale, by René Carron. Tel: (33) 492 34 20 03.

Lodging - Hotels