State of the Verdon: safety, water, roads and access
"Is it doable today?" — the real question before you set off. The Verdon is a
regulated river and a mountain territory: flow rate, weather,
fire risk and road openings change from one day to the next. Here are the
official sources to check, gathered in one place, plus what's
open this season.
LiveVerdon does not invent live data: as long as we cannot guarantee
the source and freshness of an automated feed, we prefer to send you to the
official source of the day, with the right link. That's more reliable
than an approximate figure — and it's our "verified and sourced" promise
applied to real time.
Three exceptions on this page since 9 August 2026: access to the forest massifs, swimming
bans and drought restrictions are served live, because each source publishes a
machine-readable, dated format, and we query it on every visit. If it does not respond,
we say so — we never show you yesterday's status.
Access to forest massifs: what the prefecture publishes, and how to read it
Every summer day, the State publishes an access status massif by massif. Here is what it says, what it does not say, and why “is my commune closed?” does not have the same answer on either side of the Verdon.
Today’s status
Reading the official source…
The massifs, by name
On the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence side, six massifs: ROUGON · ESPARRON-DE-VERDON · MONTAGNAC-MONTPEZAT · CASTELLANE · GREOUX-LES-BAINS · QUINSON.
On the Var side, the one covering the left bank of the gorges — Aiguines, Trigance, Bauduen, Les Salles-sur-Verdon — is Plateau de Canjuers. It is not “Haut Var”, despite the name: that one covers the south-west of the department, around Aups, Régusse and Montmeyan. A massif’s name does not tell you where it is.
In the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, villages are not inside the massifs
There, massifs are small forest polygons that exclude the villages: the one at Esparron-de-Verdon measures roughly two kilometres by two. Not one of our village centres falls inside. So the question is not whether your commune is closed, but whether the trail you are heading for enters a massif. In the Var it is the opposite: the massifs cover the whole territory, your commune included.
The two departments are not read the same way
The Alpes-de-Haute-Provence publish a closure: it applies or it does not. The Var publishes a level out of five, from green to black. At the second-highest step, access remains possible within the designated public reception areas in the forest (ZAPEF) and nowhere else — a distinction that “everything is closed” flattens.
Tomorrow’s forecast appears the evening before, around 6 pm. Before then it does not exist yet: if you are planning tomorrow in the morning, the information is not available — and that is an answer, not an evasion.
What “no closure” does not mean
The absence of a procedure does not permit everything. Access, works and the use of fire remain governed by the prefectural order — of 16 July 2021, amended on 29 July 2024, for the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence; of 19 June 2018 for the Var.
A municipal order may not appear in this file. On site, the commune’s own notice prevails.
Three different regimes, and the file sees only one of them
The ministry’s file covers only the officially monitored lake beaches. It sees neither municipal orders nor prefectoral safety orders. “No site flagged” therefore does not mean “you may swim anywhere”.
Swimming in the Verdon river itself is banned by municipal order in Aiguines, Castellane, Rougon and La Palud-sur-Verdon. This is not seasonal, and the national file does not show it.
Finally, fire risk closes access to the forest massif, not to the water: two distinct decisions, taken by two different authorities.
25 bathing sites are officially monitored across our territory, in 12 communes. 14 of them are in the Var: a page that only reads the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence misses more than half.
The sampling season, and what happens outside it
Sampling runs from to , except for 2 sites at Moustiers-Sainte-Marie (Pont du Galetas and La Cadeno), monitored from to .
Outside those dates, no official sampling takes place: the question “is the water clean?” then has no official answer. Nobody writes this.
Why “today” cannot be measured
A sample measures one point, at one moment. The rhythm is seven to fifteen days. The latest published result is therefore always several days old, and no source can state the water’s condition at the hour you are reading.
Why we publish no water-quality rating
The European classification is computed over the last four seasons, at the end of the season. In midsummer, no site in France is classified for the current year — yet the open data still shows a value, and the same site’s official record may say “not classified”. Publishing that value as a quality rating would be an invisible falsehood.
The ban still circulating dates from October 2025
An oil leak at the Quinson dam led to a ban on swimming, water sports and fishing on . It was lifted on . Yet some search engines still serve it in the present tense, undated. An expired notice is not withdrawn: it is dated.
A commune does not carry a single level. It spans several zones — drinking water, groundwater, surface water — and they can be at different levels. La Palud-sur-Verdon carried two at once on the day we built this page. The level shown here is the most severe one that applies to the commune: it is the only one that misleads nobody.
The scale, from lightest to most severe
Vigilance, then alert, then reinforced alert, then crisis. Each step adds prohibitions, and they do not all target the same people: some bind the operator of a site, not the visitor.
Why we never summarise a restriction
The official text on fountains carries an exception — those fed by gravity from a spring. A summary loses it, and becomes false in the very villages where fountains are gravity-fed. So we reproduce the order’s wording as it stands, exceptions included.
An order may have no end date at all
That is the case for one of those covering the Verdon. When an end date exists, we show it; when it does not, we do not invent one.
We query the 65 communes tracked by the VigiEau feed on and around our territory, one by one. Only those at alert level or above are listed; the others are under vigilance. The order contains many restrictions beyond the two shown here.
The flow rate in the whitewater section can go from 1.5 to 40 m³/s in a few minutes, with no visible warning. No public live feed exists: EDF reserves access to the flow rate downstream of Chaudanne to professionals under agreement. Castellane's rafting operators receive this information and adjust their outings accordingly — which is why asking them, on the day itself, remains the most reliable way to know before any activity in the riverbed.
Storms, heatwaves, wind: Météo-France vigilance covers both départements of the Verdon (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence 04 and Var 83). Check both if you are on the left bank of the canyon.
Every summer, a prefectoral order can ban access to forest areas according to 5 risk levels (up to the Black level). Today's status, checked live, is right above on this page.
The Corniche Sublime (RD71, left bank) is open again since 20 August 2026 (afternoon), after a closure for rockslides since 18 August 2026 (cliff-clearing work finished faster than announced). The Col d’Illoire trail isn’t confirmed reopened by this announcement. For the Haut-Verdon passes, the Route des Crêtes tunnel works and the full 2026 closure details, see our dedicated page.
The Parc du Verdon documents water management (reserved flow rates by section) and regulations by environment. The background reference behind today's figures.
Every day from June 29 to September 14; booking recommended.
Haut-Verdon passes (Allos, Cayolle, Champs)
~mid-June → late November
Col d'Allos reopened on 12 June 2026. Roadworks from 14 September to 13 November 2026 (Allos town hall): traffic stopped Monday to Thursday from 8am to 5pm and Friday from 8am to 1pm; open in the evening, overnight and from Friday 1pm to Monday 8am — check today's status on Inforoute 04.
Corniche Sublime (RD71, left bank, Aiguines–Trigance)
Open since 20 August 2026 (afternoon)
Closed from 18 August 2026 to 20 August 2026 (afternoon) due to rockslides (cliff-clearing work finished faster than announced). The Col d’Illoire trail’s status isn’t confirmed by this reopening — reconfirm before you go.
Lac d'Allos (road from La Cluite to the Laus car park)
25 September → 31 October 2026
Municipal order no. 2026-160: every Friday and Saturday from 5 pm to 9 pm, the road is closed to motor vehicles going uphill (La Cluite barrier), when it is otherwise open. Downhill traffic stays free and access on foot is maintained; emergency and service vehicles are exempt. Check again with the Allos town hall before you set out.
Skiing at Val d'Allos
mid-December → early April
The Haut-Verdon's winter season, while the canyon rests.
Reference dates recorded from the Parc naturel régional du Verdon. For the exact
status on any given day (passes, shuttle, road), check Inforoute 04
and When to visit the Verdon.
Bauduen and Lake Sainte-Croix: the boating restriction linked to the Pontevès fire is not officially confirmed as lifted
What we can establish: the Pontevès wildfire, which required Canadair aircraft to
scoop water from Lake Sainte-Croix (Bauduen area), has officially been contained since
7 August 2026 (Var prefecture situation report No. 56). As of 11 August 2026, the current
lists of restrictions in force — from both the prefecture and the Parc naturel régional
du Verdon — no longer mention a boating restriction on this stretch of the lake.
What we cannot establish: no official source explicitly states that this
restriction has been lifted — the absence of a mention is not confirmation. Before any
boating trip on Lake Sainte-Croix near Bauduen, check directly with the Var prefecture
or Bauduen town hall.
The danger to know about: EDF water releases
The Chaudanne dam, just upstream of Castellane, can raise the flow rate from
1.5 to 40 m³/s in a few minutes. Never step into the Verdon's riverbed without
checking with the rafting operators in Castellane first. Everything is explained on our
Safety in the Gorges du Verdon page.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Verdon passable today?
That depends on three things worth checking the same morning: the EDF water release schedule (for any activity in the riverbed), the weather vigilance (storms, heatwaves) and, in summer, the forest-access order in case of fire risk. This page gathers the official links so you can check each one in two minutes.
How do I know if there's an EDF water release today?
There is no public day-by-day schedule. On mariviereetmoi.edf.fr, EDF Hydro’s official tool, the flow figures downstream of the Chaudanne dam are reserved for professionals under agreement. The safest course is to ask Castellane’s rafting operators, who receive this information. In July-August, releases generally happen on Tuesdays and Fridays, but never rely on a fixed day.
Is the Route des Crêtes open?
The Route des Crêtes (D23) is generally open from late March to late November and closed in winter because of snow and ice. For the exact status on any given day, especially in the shoulder seasons, check Inforoute 04.
Does LiveVerdon show real-time data?
Three feeds are, since 9 August 2026: access to the forest massifs, swimming bans and drought restrictions, each queried at the source on every visit — with declared unavailability if the source doesn't respond, never yesterday's status shown as current. For the river’s flow rate in the gorges, however, no public real-time feed exists: we send you to the official source instead of inventing a figure. For the weather, our “The Verdon today” page shows live forecasts (MET Norway data); the official vigilance — storms, heatwaves, wind — remains that of Météo-France, to be checked at the source.
Check for yourself
The external sources this page relies on, one click away.We would rather you be able to contradict us than ask you to take our word for it.
Official map of access to forest massifs by fire risk level, updated daily in season.
3 of these 4 links responded during our last automated check, on 5 October 2026. A broken link is removed, never left in place.
Receive the “State of the Verdon” alerts
This page tells you the state of the Verdon today. The Letter, for its part, warns you: scheduled water release, closed trail or road, swimming ban — the e-mail goes out when the event happens, not on a fixed date.
Please note: the Letter itself is written and sent in French.