The Tour des Gorges du Verdon is the great official tour of the Parc naturel régional du Verdon: a 7-day loop starting from Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, about 115 km and more than 5,000 m of cumulative elevation gain. It is a GRP route (red and yellow), not to be confused with the linear GR4, which LiveVerdon documents separately. Here are the 7 stages, the cross-checked official figures, and what remains unclear.
Verified on 20 August 2026 with the Parc naturel régional du Verdon (Chemins des Parcs), Verdon Tourisme and Alpes Haute Provence Tourisme.
The essentials
| Distance | 114.7 to 114.8 km (116 km according to a more rounded source) |
| Elevation gain | +4,716 m to +5,339 m depending on the source |
| Duration | 7 days |
| Start / Finish | Moustiers-Sainte-Marie (loop, in either direction) |
| Waymarking | GRP red and yellow, sections shared with the GR4 in places |
| Difficulty | Difficult — “the most demanding” of the GRP Tours du Verdon (parcduverdon.fr) |
| Altitude range | 477 m to 1,570 m |
The 7 stages, in detail
Two sources publish a day-by-day breakdown, with minor gaps (under 0.5 km on distance, more variable on duration and elevation gain):
| Stage | Route | Distance | Elevation gain (source A / B) | Duration (source A / B) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Moustiers-Sainte-Marie → La Palud-sur-Verdon | ~17 km | +1,044 m / +1,072 m | 6h / 6h |
| 2 | La Palud-sur-Verdon → Rougon | ~21.5-21.8 km | +958 m / +1,321 m | 8h / 8h |
| 3 | Rougon → Castellane | ~17.7-17.8 km | +434 m / +497 m | 6h / 6h |
| 4 | Castellane → Trigance | ~21.1-21.2 km | +743 m / +800 m | 8h / 8h |
| 5 | Trigance → Les Cavaliers (Aiguines) | 10.7-11.2 km | +571 m / +593 m | 4h / 6h |
| 6 | Les Cavaliers → Aiguines | 15.2-15.3 km | +784 m / +802 m | 5h / 6h |
| 7 | Aiguines → Moustiers-Sainte-Marie | 12.2-12.5 km | +204 m / +243 m | 4h / 5h |
The two sources are Alpes Haute Provence Tourisme (rando-alpes-haute-provence.fr) and Chemins des Parcs / Verdon PNR (cheminsdesparcs.fr). The most demanding stage, in both sources, is day 2 (La Palud-sur-Verdon → Rougon).
What we do not reconcile: the sum of the 7 stages slightly exceeds the announced total of 114.7-114.8 km in both sources — a rounding gap between the per-stage distances and the published total, not a contradiction of substance.
Communes crossed
Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, La Palud-sur-Verdon, Rougon, Castellane, Trigance and Aiguines — confirmed by all sources. Two sources mention a total of “7 communes” without naming them all; one of them (Chemins des Parcs) adds Le Bourguet, but only one source cites it: we do not add it to the list until a second source confirms it.
Accommodation along the way
- Chalet de la Maline — hut, La Palud-sur-Verdon, on the route des Crêtes, at the start of the sentier Blanc-Martel. 44 beds.
- Ferme des Cavaliers — gîte d’étape, Aiguines, end of stage 5. Spring water, limited showers in summer (Chemins des Parcs, Lacs et Gorges du Verdon Tourisme).
- For the other stages, the sources generically mention “gîtes d’étape, bed and breakfasts, campsites, hotels, CAF huts” in each village, with no exhaustive list published.
Do not confuse with…
The name “Tour des Gorges du Verdon” is shared by several different products — we tell them apart to avoid any confusion when booking or planning the route:
- The GR4, a linear route from Castellane to Manosque (also 7 days, but an entirely different route) — see our GR4 fact-sheet.
- A separate FFRandonnée loop, 40 km over 3 days and 2,200 m of elevation gain, using “part of the GR4 and its variants” (ffrandonnee.fr).
- A “Tour des Gorges du Verdon” by bike, 85 to 88 km, a cycle-touring route unrelated to walking (Bikemap, Visorando).
- The GRP Tour du lac de Sainte-Croix, 5 days, another member of the same family of GRP created by the PNR (“GRP TDV”), but a different route centred on the lake.
An FFRandonnée topo-guide exists for the GR4, but not for this GRP: the Tour des Gorges du Verdon is documented directly by the Parc naturel régional du Verdon (Chemins des Parcs, downloadable PDF brochure), not by the FFRandonnée — a clarification that corrects our own internal inventory.
What is still missing
We would rather say so: the precise water and resupply points for each stage are not documented (the only guidance found: bring 3 litres of water per person); the full list of accommodation for stages 1 to 4 and 7 is not published in detail; and the 7th commune crossed (Le Bourguet?) is confirmed by only one source. These fields will be completed as soon as a reliable source specifies them.
Sources
Data cross-checked and verified on 2026-08-20: Alpes Haute Provence Tourisme (rando-alpes-haute-provence.fr), Chemins des Parcs / Verdon PNR (cheminsdesparcs.fr), Verdon Tourisme (verdontourisme.com), parcduverdon.fr, FFRandonnée (ffrandonnee.fr, for the separate 40 km loop and the confirmation that no dedicated topo-guide exists), Lacs et Gorges du Verdon Tourisme (Ferme des Cavaliers). Discrepancies retained and flagged above. No data invented: a missing field is flagged as such.