A large spa and market town on the edge of the Alps, Digne is the capital of the lavender country of Haute Provence. It sits beside the fast-flowing Bléone river and is surrounded by heavily forested, steep and mountainous hiking country. The town has a compact center and a pretty main street lined with plane trees.
Digne’s geological position, at the transition between the high plains of Provence and the Alps, puts it at the center of an area remarkably rich in fossils. The petrified remains of animals and plants, demonstrating more than 300 million years of evolutionary history, are protected in the Haute Provence Geological Reserve. The reserve, which covers 47 communities, is headquarted in Digne (Geological Museum, Centre de Géologie Saint Benoît, 04000 Dignes les Bains, ☎ 33 04 92 36 70 70, fax 33 04 92 36 70 71, contact@resgeol04.org, www.resgeol04.org). Arrange for a guide through Empreinte (c/o Joël Marteau, le Village, 04390 Beaujeu. ☎/fax 33 04 92 34 91 20, inforesa@empreinte-geol.com, www.empreintegeol.com) to find the fossil skeleton of a marine reptile, an ichtyosaurus, or the Dalle aux Ammonites, a huge slab of rock covered with more than 1,000 fossils.
Author’s Tip: Look for Saint Vincent Stars in Digne’s jewelry and craft shops. Often mounted in gold or silver, these black limestone stars are the fossil remains of a plant that grew here 185 million years ago. |
If chasing butterflies is more your bag than hunting fossils, you may be interested in the fact that Digne is also at the center of Europe’s richest butterfly fields. A total of 115 species have been identified in the town’s Jardin des Papillons (Butterfly Garden). The most recent, identified here for the first time in 2004, is the Moiré Provençal (Erebia epystigne).
The Butterfly Garden, an open-air center unique in France, can be visited only on guided tours, which are given at idiosyncratic hours. In April, May and September, tours are given Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, at 11 am and 2 pm. In June, tours at 11 am, 2 and 4 pm are available by appointment on Monday and Friday. In July, it’s 11 am, 2 and 4 pm, and in August, 10 am, 11:30 and 2 pm tours are given every day. Tickets cost €4.60 for adults and €2.75 for children.
 |
By car, leave the A51 at exit 21, south of Sisteron and join the N85, also known as the Route Napoléan southbound. The N85 crosses the Durance and then turns towards the east, following the river Bléone to Digne les Bains.
 |
<< Taxi Services || Via Ferrata for Would-Be Mountaineers >>
