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The Towns: La Palud sur Verdon (950 m/3,117 feet) is a tourist center for the region, offering shops, restaurants, hotels, gîtes, campsites, a tourist information office and bus connections. It has a church with a 13th-century bell tower and an 18th-century castle. Located on a high, wide plateau, surrounded by views of even higher mountains, it is a good place to relax and recover from the Sentier Martel before taking up the last leg of the three-day hike.

Moustiers Sainte Marie, where the hike ends, has been known since the 16th century for its blue and white faïence ware. Still a town of potters, it has 19 pottery studios to visit. The town’s setting, in a natural amphitheater of limestone cliffs, makes it one of the most dramatically beautiful in the region. The two rocky towers above the town’s church are linked with a 750-foot forged chain from which a golden star has shone for hundreds of years. It was placed there by a local nobleman, thankful for his return from the crusades. There are some very good restaurants (at least one of which, Alan Ducasse’s Bastide is a destination on its own), shops, hotels and camping, as well as public transportation links. Moustiers is a popular town, so if you are planning to end your hike there, make reservations for a place to stay.

The headquarters of the Parc Naturel Régional du Verdon (Regional Nature Park of Verdon), which includes 43 towns and spreads over almost half a million acres, is here. Information about a variety of local paths for hikers and mountain bikers of different abilities is available at the park center in Moustiers Saint Marie.

The Hike: Day 3 of the hike takes about eight hours (or six, if you start from La Palud).

• From Chalet de la Maline, the GR4 follows the D23 road to La Palud sur Verdon (two hours).
• Leave the town center in the direction of Châteauneuf les Moustiers, leading to a small wayside chapel.
• Join the path to the left which climbs along the thalweg (a geological term for the point at which two opposing slopes meet). The path winds back and forth along a forestry path and follows a stone wall before climbing steeply to the right toward Mont Barbin, which rises over the gorges.
• Climb for about an hour and a half to the Source de Barbin, a high pass at 1,330 m/4,400 feet.
• Follow the flank of the mountain and take the forestry path that descends to the left, through a stand of pines. The route joins a wider forestry road.
• Descend to the Jas de Barbin, a small Provençal farm in a clearing (about half an hour). Pass it on the left side. Then, 300 m/980 feet further, take the lane to the right.
• A bit further along, you will cross another path before rejoining the GR4, slightly lower down.
• Follow the GR4 to the right. After crossing a second small valley, reach the Barbin Plain. Continue to the first intersection of paths and turn onto the path to the right.
• A little farther, take the forestry road that goes off toward the right, into the pine woods. You will pass some ruined huts and, just after, reach Col de Plein Voir (Clear View Pass) at an altitude of 1,200 m/3,900 feet (about an hour). There is a scenic viewpoint here, overlooking Lac de Sainte Croix. You should also be able to see the Lure, Mont Ventoux, Mont Sainte Victoire and the Lubéron in the distance.
• Follow the crest, reaching Col de L’Ane (Donkey Pass ) after half an hour. After another half-hour, reach the Ourbès signal tower. After the signal tower the path descends down a rocky ridge past Beylière Farm, reaching the D952, the Route des Gorges, in about 1½ hours.
• At the crossroads, take the road to Moustiers Sainte Marie and follow it to Chapelle Saint Pierre. About 200 m/660 feet beyond the chapel, take the road to the left (going southwest).
• After another 200 m/660 feet, turn right. 500 m/1,600 feet farther, you will come to an intersection (about an hour). Continue straight through to the Moustiers Sainte Marie shelter.
• Ford a small stream, going north, and join a small road that leads to the town, about 15 minutes away.

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