Sentier des Sireniens

The sentier des Sireniens is an easy, family-friendly palaeontological walk starting from the col des Lèques, which reaches the mur des Sireniens — an outcrop where you can find fossils of sirenians, those marine mammals 40 million years old. Allow about 4 km there and back for 1h30 of walking: a short route, ideal with children.

Verified on 5 July 2026 from the cross-checked data of the Castellane-Verdon tourist office, Routard, Buena Vista Rafting and voyageavecnous.fr.

The essentials

What the sources do not reconcile

Two points still differ from one source to another, and we would rather show them than settle the matter in the sources’ place.

• The starting point. Routard, Buena Vista and voyageavecnous place the start at the col des Lèques. The tourist office fact-sheet, for its part, gives “Castellane” as the commune of departure — a difference of wording more than a contradiction on the ground, but one we flag.
• Distance and elevation gain. The common version gives 4 km for 150 m of elevation gain. A variant from the Parc naturel régional (the regional nature park), by way of the ravin de Ressacier, is described as 3.8 km for 112 m of elevation gain (source castellane-verdon.com). So the two routes coexist, with figures that are close but distinct.

Points of interest

• The mur des Sireniens — the heart of the walk: a rock outcrop where you can see fossils of sirenians, marine mammals going back 40 million years.
• The PNR variant by the ravin de Ressacier — an alternative route offered by the Parc naturel régional, a little shorter (3.8 km, 112 m of elevation gain).
• The “Sirènes et Fossiles” exhibition (Mermaids and Fossils) — at the Maison Nature & Patrimoines in Castellane (2 place de l’église), an outpost of the Verdon PNR. It extends the walk by explaining the fossils, and admission is free.

What is still missing

We would rather say it plainly: no rating and no reviews are documented for this trail in the sources consulted, and any protection rules or regulations covering the palaeontological site are not specified either. These fields will be completed as soon as a reliable source documents them.

Sources

Data cross-checked and verified on 2026-07-05: Castellane-Verdon tourist office (castellane-verdon.com), Routard (routard.com), Buena Vista Rafting (buenavistarafting.com), voyageavecnous.fr. Discrepancies kept and flagged above. No invented data: a missing field is flagged as such.