The gîte is 3 km from the small village of Saint-Auban. 30 mins from Castellane with its busy market days on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. 40 mins from Grasse, capital of the perfume industry. You can visit the many places where they make the world-famous perfumes - and buy samples. The photo below left shows the shop in the largest company - Parfumerie Fragonard. Photo below right, the hamlet with the winter snow.

Our gîte makes an excellent base for anyone wishing to enjoy a relaxing holiday visiting some of the many medieval villages locally, Entrevaux (the main entrance to Entrevaux is shown in photo below right) and Colmar having been designed by the famous French military architect Vauban. It is also an ideal base for those wishing to have a more energetic holiday.

The GR4 and GR510 along with many other foot paths criss cross the area making it a walkers' paradise. With the gîte we provide walking information about over 30 of our favourite walks, with maps, lengths of times the walks take and weather forecasts, the suggested walks include a variety of distances and height gains and we are on hand to give you any additional information that you may require. The paths are well sign posted, well maintained and free of litter.

We also provide suggested cycle routes as the area has quiet roads with good surfaces making it excellent for cycling. For those on mountain bikes there is an abundant supply of forestry tracks to keep you busy.

The gîte is also 40 mins from the Verdon Gorge. As the largest gorge in Europe, the Verdon Gorge is stunning just to go and look at. With the reintroduction of vultures it is now also popular with bird watchers. The whole area is scattered with gorges which makes the local scenery stunning and has made the region famous for canyoning and rock climbing.

The area is also popular for those who enjoy water sports with a nearby lake for swimming, flat water canoeing and pedalos; you can also hire windsurfers and sailing dinghies. There are a large number of rafting, canoeing and aqua rando companies based in Castellane making trips down the Verdon Gorge, the Daluis and the upper Verdon a popular option - photo below.

The area is also famous for caving being made up of folded limestone rock. There are several show caves and you can also do the worlds first ever via souterrata. There are some challenging forests of adventure where you literally go on a tree top walk and slide along a 470m zip wire.