The Col de l’Âne and Plein Voir loop is a difficult hike that climbs onto the heights of Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, above the faience village, to reach the ridges that dominate the west of the massif. Its reward: plunging views over the Lac de Sainte-Croix and over the entrance to the Gorges du Verdon. Here is what the sources document precisely — and what they don’t agree on.
Verified on 5 July 2026 with moustiers.fr, the Tourisme Alpes-Haute-Provence portal, Altituderando and AllTrails.
The essentials
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| Distance | 10.49 km |
| Elevation gain | 820 m |
| Duration | 4 h to 5h20 depending on the variant |
| Difficulty | Difficult |
| Type | Loop |
| Start | Félines car park (road from Moustiers toward La Palud-sur-Verdon) |
| Finish / high point | Belvédère de Plein Voir (1,168 m; summit spot height 1,194 m) |
The truth about the numbers
Depending on the track recorded, distance, elevation gain and duration vary markedly from one source to another. Here are the published figures and the one we use — and why.
| Data point | Value used | Other values seen | Why we settle it this way |
|---|
| Distance | 10.49 km | 9.85 (Visorando, Plein Voir variant) · 10.6 (Komoot) · 7.9 (Les Deux Petits Baroudeurs, from Félines) | The figure from the Visorando track “Très surprenants belvédères” (820 m of elevation gain, 5h20), the most complete and best documented one. |
| Elevation gain | 820 m | 756 · 700 · 620 | The gaps correspond to different routes: the short variant from Félines (620 m) climbs less than the full loop (820 m). |
| Duration | 5h20 (full loop) | 4 h · 4h32 · 5 h | 5h20 for the full 10.49 km; 4 h for the short 7.9 km variant from Félines. |
What you cross
- The viewpoints along the Plein Voir ridges — the route’s central motif, with the plunging views over the Lac de Sainte-Croix and the gorges.
- A rocky loop (Les Deux Petits Baroudeurs’ description): the ground is stony and the climb sustained. The Komoot guide ranks the southern variant of the Col de l’Âne among the region’s major challenges.
- The Félines car park, the closest starting point: it is also the quickest to fill up, so plan ahead in high season.
- Moustiers-Sainte-Marie at the start: a village listed among the Plus Beaux Villages de France (the “most beautiful villages in France” label), a faience town, tucked beneath its star suspended between two cliffs.
What’s still missing
We would rather say so openly: no source publishes an average rating or reviews for this route, and neither the waymarking nor the recommended direction of the loop is documented in open access. These fields will be completed as soon as a reliable source provides them.
Sources
Data cross-checked and verified on 2026-07-05: moustiers.fr, Tourisme Alpes-Haute-Provence portal, Altituderando, AllTrails, Visorando (tracks “Très surprenants belvédères par les cols de l’Âne et de Plein Voir” and “Belvédère de Plein Voir”), Komoot (“South of Col de l’Âne”), Les Deux Petits Baroudeurs, Verdon Nature. Discrepancies kept and settled above. No invented data: a missing field is flagged as such.