Welcome to quinson

Formerly perched on cliff, the village of Quinson (quinsoun means finch into of Provence), is now established in the plain, at the edge of the Verdon.

Cash 350 inhabitants, Quinson is located in a geological and geographical context remarkable.

Door of the department of the Alpes de Haute Provence, it establishes the link between the plate of Laugh Valensole and the High VAr.

Located in the middle of the Regional natural park of the Verdon, it promises quite beautiful holidays to you, as well sporting as cultural or simply resting.

From the nautical base of Quinson, benefit from the 8km of wild and picturesque throats, classified Natura 2000, which are stretched to the Lake Esparron of the Verdon.

For this excursion various types of boats are proposed to you: kayak, canoes, pedal boats or boats electric. With the current, admire the caves, that would have sheltered the famous gangster Gaspard de Besse, large variety of birds which elected residence in the low Throats, and with a little chance tortoises or coypus.

From Quinson, count 6:00 return ticket to reach the Lake Esparron in kayaks, canoes and the pedal boats. 4:00 will be necessary to make this way in electric boats.

The low gorges of the Verdon are a remarkable space of leisure and relaxation. Take care to respect the environment during your activities.

Between scrubland and forest, throats and plates, vines, lavenders and olive-trees, cliffs and water gleaming, Quinson proposes to you a range extremely varied of hiking.

On the whole more than 40 km of marked out paths (4 PR, 1 GR.) and many connections with the communes of the neighbourhoods. You will go along the Verdon by borrowing the old channel for the ballade " Holy Maxime and Low Throats of Verdon".

Intact environment and mysterious seal with the tunnels of the old channel of the Verdon built at the end of the 19th century, the caves and dens of the gangsters of the 18th century. The vault, located at semi-course, is the place of pilgrimage of the village. This excursion, of 9,5 km, will take approximately 3:45 to you. The return is carried out by the GR. 99.

With the walk " The old Quinson, they are a panoramic sight on the Low Throats, the current village and the lake which are offered to you. Charming small paths with cliffside will lead you until the ruins of the old village and of the barred spur (time celto-Ligurian) of Quinson.

Approximate duration 1:15 for 3,5 km.

Upstream it stopping you will be able to carry out the ballade " The Cave of the Bonne" Balsam; on the topic of prehistory, with explanatory panels marking out the course.

The access to the cave is possible that within the framework of guided visits organized

Duration of the walk: approximately 2:00 for 6 km.

Attention the uneven one is very important.

The path the source of Poiraque by Durdes consists of a way through small valleys until the limits of the plate of Laugh Valensole, its corn and its fields of lavandins. The arrival on the source is done in a landscape devastated by the fire of the summer 2003.

Duration of the walk: 2:30.

With nearly 170 ways, Quinson is one of the sites of climbing the most interesting of the Verdon. The diversity of the exposures, orientations and degrees of difficulty allow all the types of climbing, the beginners, to take pleasure.

• The Museum

Norman Foster, architect of international repute designed a resolutely modern building while privileging the integration of the Museum at the entry of the village of Quinson. This step avant-gardist is found in the equipment of the museum, which uses new technologies. 

• The reconstituted prehistoric village

At the edge of the Verdon, with 500 meters of the Museum, the scientists reconstituted prehistoric habitats which form a village in which you can discover the size of flint, the manufacture of fire without matches, the shooting with the arc, to launch it sagaie to the engine, a Neolithic garden.

• The Good cave of the Balsam

This major site of European prehistory, classified historic building, can be visited with a guide (for the groups and on go), by borrowing a pedestrian path of scrubland the length whose equipment museographic treats relationship between the Man and the environment.