Serre-Ponçon and Les Orres

Lac de Serre-Ponçon

As early as the 19th century, the Durance's floods, such as those of 1843 and 1856, and its droughts, as in 1895, set engineers dreaming of a dam at the Serre-Ponçon gorge, the narrowest point of the valley just downstream of the Ubaye. For decades, test drilling ran up against a bed of alluvium estimated at 110 metres deep. It took EDF and the techniques of the great American earth dams: construction lasted from 1955 to 1959, producing a structure 123 metres high and 650 metres thick at the base. More than a thousand people were displaced, more than 400 buildings destroyed, and the villages of Ubaye and Savines disappeared under the water. The 2,800-hectare lake generates around 700 million kWh a year, irrigates the farmland of Provence and supplies drinking water to Marseille and part of the region. In September 1971, Commander Cousteau's team even came to inspect its foundations without draining the lake. For leisure, the lake has nine Blue Flag public beaches and nearly 1,100 moorings in its marinas; in summer, sailing, paddleboarding, waterskiing and hire boats share the turquoise water, tinted by sediment from the Ubaye and the Durance.

Saint-Michel chapel

The Saint-Michel chapel is the lake's emblem, as present on postcards as on social media. Contrary to popular belief, it belongs not to Savines but to Prunières. According to the tourist office, it was founded in 1027, and the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem took it over in 1140; for a long time it served as a shelter for travellers and pilgrims. Earmarked for destruction like the villages drowned when the dam was built, it was saved by its position, slightly above the lake's maximum level, and by the intervention of the architect of the new Savines, Achille de Panaskhet. Restored in 1878 and 1903, it keeps its Romanesque plan. In the past, the Prunières procession climbed up to it for Michaelmas, on 29 September. Today the islet is a breeding ground for yellow-legged gulls, a protected species: landing is forbidden and the tourist office asks visitors not to approach on foot when the water level drops. The best viewpoints are the Baie Saint-Michel, the lay-bys on the main road towards the Prunières bridge, and the Sentier des Curattes, which links the Baie Saint-Michel to the Baie de Chanteloube. Lake cruises pass right below it.

Demoiselles coiffées de Théus

The demoiselles coiffées are fairy chimneys formed in glacial moraine deposits. The more crumbly layers are worn away by rain and wind, except where a tougher boulder shields them: what remains is a column of earth capped by its stone, sometimes more than 20 metres high. The Hautes-Alpes have three major sites, at Le Sauze-du-Lac, Théus and Châteauroux-les-Alpes. The one at Théus, the Salle de Bal des Demoiselles, is the most spectacular: hundreds of columns rise above the Durance valley, downstream of the dam. Legend has it that some young women of Théus who loved to dance met there one evening, wearing large flat hats, for a last farandole; as midnight struck, a howl rang through the valley and they were turned to stone. The 7-kilometre Théus hiking loop takes you all the way round. At Le Sauze-du-Lac, a site listed since 1966 is visited via a 95-step path with four viewing platforms and information panels; at Châteauroux-les-Alpes, a viewpoint reachable by car and the Eyrette track offer another approach, near the Cascade de la Pisse.

Notre-Dame-du-Réal Cathedral

Embrun, perched on its rock above the Durance, was a stop on the Via Domitia between Gaul and Italy and the seat of a bishopric created in the 4th century, raised to an archbishopric in the 8th century, which long ruled over dioceses as far afield as Digne, Vence, Nice and Grasse. Its Notre-Dame-du-Réal Cathedral, built between 1170 and 1225, bears witness to this: it is one of the largest religious buildings in the French Alps. The Lombard influence shows in the alternating pink and green marble, black schist and white limestone, and in the 35-metre bell tower with its pinnacles. The entrance porch rests on marble columns carried by lions; its tympanum once bore a so-called miraculous fresco, linked to a major pilgrimage on the Way of St James, destroyed during the Wars of Religion. Inside, the great organ, installed in 1464 thanks to Louis XI, is among the oldest in France, and the treasury in the Sainte-Anne chapel holds nearly 500 liturgical objects from the 15th to the 19th century, including a silver-gilt reliquary cross. Entry is free every day; on Thursdays in July and August, the cathedral hosts a series of concerts.

Plan d'eau d'Embrun

The Plan d'Eau d'Embrun solves the main drawback of Lac de Serre-Ponçon for families: its changing water level. Cut off from the reservoir and the Durance by a dyke that doubles as a promenade, this 27-hectare lake keeps a stable level and water slightly warmer than the main lake. Its grassy, shaded beaches are lifeguarded from 11am to 7pm from 4 July to 31 August, with showers, toilets and changing cabins; beach wheelchairs are lent free of charge to people with reduced mobility during lifeguard hours. Three watersports centres offer sailing, pedalos, rowing and canoeing, and a water park, the largest in Serre-Ponçon according to the tourist office, completes the line-up. Around it, tennis and padel courts, a pump track, a playground and a fitness trail stay open for most of the year. A 2.6-kilometre loop circles the lake, and cycle routes set off from there towards the rest of Serre-Ponçon. Every summer, the lake serves as the swim course for the EmbrunMan triathlon. Embrun's centre is just 2 kilometres away.

Speedline at Les Orres

The Speedline is the zip line at Les Orres, a Hautes-Alpes resort spread across three base areas, Les Orres 1550, 1650 and 1800, above Embrun. It starts at the top of the Pic Vert chairlift, at 2,240 metres, and races 1,890 metres to the opposite slope, at around 1,900 metres. The cable runs more than 100 metres above the ground. You hang lying down or sitting in a harness, alone or in pairs; the team launches you, and the advertised speed tops 140 km/h, facing Lac de Serre-Ponçon, the Embrun valley and the mountains. The chairlift is used both to go up and to come back, and the zip line runs all year round, in winter while the resort is open. A solo flight costs €40, from age 8 and 30 kg, and a duo €72 for two, up to a combined 150 kg. The resort, open for skiing from early December to mid-April, has a bike park in summer and a mountain coaster that also runs in winter.