EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

From Briançon, the river Durance meanders leisurely through a wide valley, until some 27km later it passes MONT-DAUPHIN , a formidably bastioned village , and one of the many Alpine fortifications designed by Vauban in the seventeenth century, commanding the entrance to the valley of the Guil. From here buses leave for Ville-Vieille and St-Véran within the Queyras park. They meet the Paris-Briançon trains; the 7.40am bus going all the way to St-Véran (arriving 9.10am every day except Sun throughout the year), others only as far as Ville-Vieille (the 4.55pm operates only in the summer season). It is, however, easy to get a lift in these parts; there are always climbers and hikers with transport. There is a tourist office (tel 04.92.45.17.80), a gîte , Le Glacier Bleu (tel 04.92.45.01.58, fax 04.92.45.18.47), and several restaurants inside the walled perimeter.

Twenty kilometres further along its course the river reaches EMBRUN , 49km south of Briançon, a beautiful little town of narrow streets on a rocky bluff above the River Durance on the edge of both the Parc du Queyras and the Parc des Écrins. It has been a fortress town for centuries. Hadrian made it the capital of the Maritime Alps, and from the third century to the Revolution it was the seat of an important archbishopric. Today it faces invading hordes of holiday-makers: the huge reservoir south of town, the Lac de Serre-Ponçon, has become the summer home of thousands of predominantly French caravan-dwellers. Its chief sight is its twelfth-century cathedral (concerts in summertime), with a porch in alternating courses of black and white marble in the Italian Lombard style, its roof supported on columns of pink marble resting on lions' backs - an arrangement that inspired numerous imitators throughout the region. The tourist office , in a former chapel of the Cordeliers on place Général-Dosse (July & Aug Mon-Sat 9am-7.30pm, Sun 9.30am-12.30pm & 4-7pm; rest of year Mon-Sat 9am-12.30pm & 2-6.30pm; tel 04.92.43.72.72, www.ot-embrun.fr ), is next door to the bureau for mountain guides , which organizes a daily programme of walks in the surrounding mountains. The park zones and the area south of Embrun have extensive facilities for outdoor activities ranging from rafting to sailing and climbing (enquire at the tourist office).

There are two very agreeable hotels by the central place de la Mairie: the simple, but delightful Hôtel du Commerce , ten paces from the square in rue St-Pierre (tel 04.92.43.54.54, fax 04.92.43.81.89; 160-220F/¬24-34), run by charming people, with an excellent restaurant serving menus from 90F/¬13.73; and the flower-decked Hôtel de la Mairie on the square itself (tel 04.92.43.20.65, fax 04.92.43.47.02; 300-400F/¬46-61; closed Oct-Nov & first half of May), also with good restaurant (closed Mon & Sun evening in winter; from 94F/¬14.34) serving tasty local specialities. There are also several campsites: two reasonably priced ones are Le Moulin (closed mid-Sept to May), on the left after the bridge on the Gap road (N94), and La Tour , close to the Durance off the D994 (closed Sept to late June). There is also a hostel 10km away at SAVINES-LE-LAC (tel 04.92.44.20.16, fax 04.92.44.24.54; closed Dec-March), overlooking the enormous artificial Lac de Serre-Ponçon created by damming and taming the wild Durance.