Mercantour

The youngest national park of France is located, perhaps, in the most picturesque place of the country - near the Alps, near the Côte d'Azur, under the nose of the ancient Grenoble and graceful Turin. The Mercantour, opened in 1979, is visited by almost 800 thousand people a year. And this is not accidental: the unique Valley of Miracles, the herds of grazing herons, the trembling roe deer, flashing through the foliage, as well as the most beautiful views of this wonderful corner of France attract travelers here like a magnet.

The protected area of ​​the park reaches almost 68,500 hectares, and stretches for 120 km from the Tand gorge to the amazing Yube valley. More than 6000 years ago there lived ancient people who left many traces and monuments. Today, idyllic villages are located in the Mercantour, and the main inhabitants of these places are chamois, goats, wild boars, wolves, hares, deer, roe deer and charming marmots with ermine.

In two valleys, Mercantour divides the monumental mountain of Bego (2872 m) - it is the archaeological treasure of the park, the Valley of Miracles, where nearly 40 thousand rock paintings of ancient people are located. Imagine that the shepherds of the Bronze Age grazed here 1800-700 years ago, and entertaining themselves in such a monotonous business, they painted on the rocks, scratched the hard everyday life of their community, practiced in the embryonic art of drawing. Today in the Valley of Wonders (Vallée des Merveilles) you can see petroglyphs on a variety of topics, but most likely, as scientists estimate, they have a religious context. The meaning of many rock carvings is often incomprehensible, but the images are still visible today - mostly geometric figures in a strange combination.

There are a lot of information offices around the park and around, where one can get exhaustive information, alas, in French, English. Or any other European language, as well as maps that will lead to the brightest places and to the most notable petroglyphs. In addition, in the territory of Mercantour you can spend the night - there are several hostels and campsites.

Another important attraction of the Mercanture, which is in great demand among tourists on the Cote d'Azur, is the Alfa wolf park. After all, these favorite in the Russian tales of the tailed there are already as many as 50 species, specifically in the park - 24 individuals.

For everything you can observe a la nature: in the park are placed sensitive cameras, which are removed literally every sneeze of wolves. Not only for the entertainment of tourists, but also for scientific purposes.