France > France regions > Provence > Alpes-Maritimes > Mercantour National Park
Mercantour National Park
The park is in the Provence-Alps-Cote d'Azur region, running along the border with Italy south east of Barcelonnette and north west of Sospel, where it receives more than 400,000 visitors per year.
Mercantour National Park covers some 685 km², and consists of a central uninhabited zone comprising several valleys (Roya, Bévéra, Vésubie, Tinée, Haut Var/Cians, Verdon, Ubaye - and a peripheral zone that includes a couple of dozen villages. Several of these villages are in stunning locations atop rocky peaks and outcrops.
The majority of people exploring the parc base themselves in one of the towns on or near the Barcelonnette to Sospel road that passes along the south of the parc - these towns include St-Martin-de-Entraunes, St-Sauveur-sur-Tinée, St-Etienne-de-Tinée and St-Martin-Vésubie. The road itself reaches an altitude of 2800 metres (one of the highest in Europe) as it passes by the Cime de la Bonette.
The scenery in the Mercantour Parc is really some of the best to be found in France, and it is quite lovely to walk through the lower meadows and woodlands, or if you are more experienced, to embark on one of the more strenuous mountain tracks.
One of the unexpected surprises worth seeing within the park can be reached by heading north from Sospel to St-Dalmas-de-Tende, and then heading west on the D91. From the Les Mesces Refuge there is a hike of 10km that takes you into the Vallée des Merveilles where hundreds of 3,000 year-old rock carvings of people and animals can be seen.
Mercantour National Park:tourist information, map, travel plans and gites
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Places to visit - Mercantour National Park
Explore places within about 70 kilometres on a map at Visit Mercantour National Park.
Some of the closer places are listed below (distances from Mercantour National Park are approximate and direct - as the crow flies. Only places listed on the france this way site are shown!)
Information and photos
This travel guide has information, holidays and photos of Mercantour National Park when available. If you have any photos or relevant information please send them to us! Full credit will be given if they are used.
