New products available to enjoy the Mercantour National Park - François Breton / Mercantour National Park

  • Since June 2, the Mercantour National Park has reopened to the public.
  • More than 40 years after its creation, the Park contributes to the revival of fauna and flora in the Alps.
  • New this season will allow you to (re) discover this natural space.

Walks, discoveries, hikes are again possible in the Mercantour. The opportunity to ventilate after almost two months of confinement. Reopened on June 2, the Mercantour National Park has been stepping up its programming offer since June 15 in order to offer activities to hikers and lovers of flora and fauna.

As for the reception in the gîte, it is again possible to book since this Thursday. The reception is done in the sanitary rules in force on the national scale: number of reduced beds, conditions of adapted services. Attention, it is better to find out about the measures taken by the gîte before a climb. Some will ask walkers to bring their bedding, masks and hydroalcoholic gels.

For the opening of this summer season, the Park offers some new features. They complement the activities already numerous to do on the site.

The Grande Traversée du Mercantour labeled GR will be completed 

A view from Saint-Martin-Vésubie, a passage of the Grande Traversée du Mercantour - François Rifflet / Mercantour National Park

The Grande Traversée du Mercantour (GTM), like the Corsican GR20, has just been labeled GR trail. This multi-day hike will be gradually upgraded by the Park and the teams of the French Federation of Hiking (FFRP).

The GTM is a 17- to 18-day route from Allos, Barcelonnette or Entraunes. It allows you to cross the Mercantour massif and finish on the Sablettes beach in Menton.

During this 200 km walk, hikers climb summits over 3,000 m high straddling the mountainous Franco-Italian border most of the time. Be careful however this year, following landslides between the Vens refuge and the Rabuons refuge, the stage located between the tags 103 and 104 is prohibited until the end of July. More info on the stages here.

Remote observation of a bearded vulture couple

A bearded vulture in flight - Jacques Blanc / Mercantour National Park

This year, the managers of the Bousieyas gite installed a long view on a terrace allowing hikers to observe, from a distance, a couple of bearded vulture.

Five pairs of raptors are present in the park but only one is visible from this point of view. It will take patience and caution on the part of the curious to observe this young couple, who arrived on the site last year.

The digitalization of discoveries

Two sites have been opened to make observations on the species present in the Park accessible to the public.

First, the Obs'Mercantour site, a participative scientific interface where you can, during your walks, enter your observations which will be part of the park's data. To participate, it's simple, just go to Obs'Mercantour, choose the program (8 in number) in which you want to participate, add your observation (type of species observed, number, comments), a photo and validate its action.

Another online discovery platform: Biodiv'Mercantour. This time, observations and data on the species are carried out by park officials. More than 118,705 observations are available on 1,663 species. What to learn even more about the flora and fauna that make up the National Park.

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  • Summer holidays
  • Deconfinement
  • summer
  • Park