Mercantour National Park (french: Parc national du Mercantour) a French national park located in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and Alpes-Maritimes departments. Since it was created in 1979, the park has proven popular, with 800,000 visitors annually enjoying the 600 km (372 mi) of marked footpaths and visiting its villages.

Extent

The protected area covers some 679 km², consisting of a central uninhabited zone comprising seven valleys: Roya,

Bévéra The Bévéra (in French) or Bevera (in Italian) (''Beura'' in Occitan and Ligurian) is a river of southeastern France and northwestern Italy. Geography Bévéra source is in the Maritime Alps, near Moulinet in the French Alpes-Maritimes de ...

Vésubie The Vésubie is a river in the southeast of France. It is a left tributary of the Var in the Maritime Alps. It is long. Its drainage basin is .

Tinée The Tinée (; oc, Tiniá) is a river that flows through the Alpes-Maritimes department of southeastern France. It is long. Its drainage basin is .

, Haut

Var Var or VAR may refer to: Places * Var (department), a department of France * Var (river), France * Vār, Iran, village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Var, Iran (disambiguation), other places in Iran * Vár, a village in Obreja commune, Ca ...

and

Cians The Cians is a mountain river that flows through the Alpes-Maritimes department of southeastern France. It is long. Its drainage basin is .Alpes-Maritimes) plus

Verdon Verdon may refer to: People * Verdon (surname) Places France * Verdon, Dordogne, in the Dordogne ''département'' * Verdon, Marne, in the Marne ''département'' * Vinon-sur-Verdon, an old French town in the département of Var, Provence-Alpes- ...

and Ubaye (in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence), as well as a peripheral zone comprising 28 villages. Many of them are perched villages, such as

Belvédère Belvédère (; oc, Barver; it, Belvedere) is a Communes of France, commune in the Vésubie valley north of Nice in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department in southeastern France. The village of Belvédère is located at the entran ...

at the entrance to the spectacular

Gordolasque The Gordolasque is a mountain river that flows from the Mercantour National Park in the Alpes-Maritimes department of southeastern France. It is long. Its source is in the Maritime Alps, near the Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, ...

valley, concealing great architectural riches (numerous churches decorated with murals and altar pieces by primitive Niçois painters). More than 150 rural sites are located within the Park. Around Mont Bégo there are petroglyphs pecked out on schist and granite faces. They have been dated from the late Neolithic and Bronze Ages.Jegues-Wolkiewiez, Chantale (1997) ''Des gravures de la vallée des merveilles au ciel du Mont Bego'' Dissertation, Laboratoire d'Ethnologie, UNSA.

Valley of marvels

In the heart of this setting of vertiginous summits (including Cime du Gélas, the third highest mountain in the Maritime Alps at 3,143 m), lies a gem listed as a Historical Monument, the famous Vallée des Merveilles, the aptly named
valley of marvels
. At the foot of Mont Bégo, climbers can admire some 37,000 petroglyphs dating back to the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

, representing weapons, cattle and human figures that are sometimes very mysterious. A less challenging destination is the

Musée des Merveilles Musée des Merveilles in Tende, France is a museum that documents stone age and other historic artefacts from the Mercantour National Park. It opened in 1996. There is notably a large collection of real and reproduced petroglyphs from the surroundin ...

Tende Tende (; Italian, Occitan and Royasc: ''Tenda'') is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France. Geography Tende is located within Mercantour National Park in the French Alps. The mountainous commune is bordered b ...

Lakes

Several lakes can be visited, for example the lake of Allos, the lake of the Lauzanier, the lakes of Vens, the

lakes of Morgon The lakes of Morgon (French: ''Lacs de Morgon'') are a group of lakes in the Tinée valley, Alpes-Maritimes, Alps, France. The first lake is the Big Lake of Morgon at an elevation of 2427 m. The other major lakes are the Median Lake (2470 m) and ...

, and the lakes of the valley of marvels.

Flora

In addition to the holm oak, the Mediterranean

olive tree The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' ...

, rhododendrons, firs, spruces,

Swiss pine ''Pinus cembra'', also known as Swiss pine, Swiss stone pine or Arolla pine or Austrian stone pine or just stone pine, is a species of a pine tree in the subgenus ''Strobus''. Description The Swiss pine is a member of the white pine group ...

s and above all

larch Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to much of the cooler temperate northern hemisphere, on lowlands in the north and high on mountains fur ...

es, the Mercantour is also endowed with more than 2,000 species of flowering plants, 200 of which are very rare:

edelweiss EDELWEISS (Expérience pour DEtecter Les WIMPs En Site Souterrain) is a dark matter search experiment located at the Modane Underground Laboratory in France. The experiment uses cryogenic detectors, measuring both the phonon and ionization signal ...

and

martagon lily ''Lilium martagon'', the martagon lily or Turk's cap lily, is a Eurasian species of lily. It has a widespread native region extending from Portugal east through Europe and Asia as far east as Mongolia. Description It is stem-rooting, growing be ...

are the best known, but there is also

saxifrage ''Saxifraga'' is the largest genus in the family Saxifragaceae, containing about 465 species of holarctic perennial plants, known as saxifrages or rockfoils. The Latin word ''saxifraga'' means literally "stone-breaker", from Latin ' ("rock" or " ...

with multiple flowers, houseleek, moss campion and

gentian ''Gentiana'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the gentian family (Gentianaceae), the tribe Gentianeae, and the monophyletic subtribe Gentianinae. With about 400 species it is considered a large genus. They are notable for their mostl ...

offering a multi-coloured palette in the spring. The Mercantour is the site of a large-scale All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory and Monitoring programme to identify all its living species, organised by the European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy (EDIT). Mercantour fauna (3)

Fauna

Marmot peeking out of the grass in the french Alps

Walkers may easily glimpse a chamois, several thousand of which live in the park and may often hear the whistling of

marmot Marmots are large ground squirrels in the genus ''Marmota'', with 15 species living in Asia, Europe, and North America. These herbivores are active during the summer, when they can often be found in groups, but are not seen during the winter, ...

s. The ermine is rarer (and more furtive), as is the

ibex An ibex (plural ibex, ibexes or ibices) is any of several species of wild goat (genus ''Capra''), distinguished by the male's large recurved horns, which are transversely ridged in front. Ibex are found in Eurasia, North Africa and East Africa ...

and the

mouflon The mouflon (''Ovis gmelini'') is a wild sheep native to Cyprus, the Caspian region from eastern Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran. It is thought to be the ancestor of all modern domestic sheep breeds. Taxonomy ''Ovis gmelini'' was the sc ...

, although with a little luck you may be able to observe them during the coolest parts of the day in the summer. There is a tremendous variety of wildlife in the Mercantour:

red deer The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of we ...

and

roe deer The roe deer (''Capreolus capreolus''), also known as the roe, western roe deer, or European roe, is a species of deer. The male of the species is sometimes referred to as a roebuck. The roe is a small deer, reddish and grey-brown, and well-adapt ...

in the undergrowth, hares and

wild boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The species is ...

partridge A partridge is a medium-sized galliform bird in any of several genera, with a wide native distribution throughout parts of Europe, Asia and Africa. Several species have been introduced to the Americas. They are sometimes grouped in the Perd ...

golden eagle The golden eagle (''Aquila chrysaetos'') is a bird of prey living in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. They are one of the best-known birds of ...

s and

buzzard Buzzard is the common name of several species of birds of prey. ''Buteo'' species * Archer's buzzard (''Buteo archeri'') * Augur buzzard (''Buteo augur'') * Broad-winged hawk (''Buteo platypterus'') * Common buzzard (''Buteo buteo'') * Eastern ...

s, numerous species of butterflies and even about 50 Italian wolves (which migrated there at the beginning of the 1990s). A Wolves Centre welcomes visitors in Saint-martin-Vésubie. Mercantour fauna (2)

References

External links

* {{Authority control National parks of France Geography of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence Geography of Alpes-Maritimes Tourist attractions in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence Tourist attractions in Alpes-Maritimes Rock art in France Protected areas established in 1979 Protected areas of the Alps