Aups

Overview

A commune in the Var (83), in the heart of the Haut-Var Verdon. Administrative seat of the Lacs et Gorges du Verdon community of communes. Nicknamed 'the truffle capital' and 'the capital of the Haut-Var'.

Where to stay in Aups

Hotels, campsites and gîtes in Aups, with their real rating when available.

Listings marked “Ad” (LiveVerdon plan) or “Recommended by the publisher” are ranked ahead of the others: plans first, then the publisher’s clients, then addresses recommended with no commercial link. How listings are ranked

• Le Saint-Marc Hotel 4.6 (1209 Google reviews) Business’s own website
• Camping L'Emeraude du Verdon (anciennement Saint-Lazare) Campsite ★★★ 4.6 (306 Google reviews) Business’s own website
• Auberge de la Tour Inn 4.5 (1437 Google reviews) To be confirmed

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Services & shops in Aups

EV charging — in the village: Parking de la colle (3 points) · Place Martin Bidaure (2 points) · AUPS (2 points), network eborn, ELECTRIC 55 CHARGING. See the map of Verdon charging points →

Fuel: 1 petrol station in the commune. See live prices →

Food & groceries

• Intermarché SuperZ.A. Les Uchanes, route de Salernes (D557)
• Vivalavenue Georges Clemenceau
• Aups black truffle marketplace Frédéric Mistral

Bakery

• Boulangerie Carla & Yannick Marion1 rue Maréchal Foch
• Boulangerie Lacroix'santerie9 rue du Marché

Butcher

• Boucherie Aupsoise – Clémentine et Damien2 place Général Girard

Pharmacy

• Pharmacie Faure et Lambert1 avenue Georges Clemenceau

Health (doctor, nurse…)

• Maison de Santé d'Aupstimber building reached from the village square
• General practitionersgeneral practitioners
• Aups dental practicedental surgeon
• Independent nursesnursing care

Fuel

• Station Intermarchéroute de Sillans / route de Salernes (D557), Les Uchanes

Bank / ATM

• Caisse d'Épargne9-11 avenue Georges Clemenceau
• Crédit Agricole19 avenue Georges Clemenceau

Post office

• Post office in the town centre

Tobacconist & newsagent

• Bar Tabac Presse Lou Baraulo4 rue Gabriel Péri

Car garage

• Garage BesseZA Les Uchanes

Other

• Verdon Optiqueoptician
• Point Pbuilding materials
• Maison de la Truffe d'Aups et du Verdonshop / discovery space

Spa, massage & wellness

• La Pause Bien-Être (massage studio, rue Maréchal Foch)

For a wider choice: A well-equipped central town of the Haut-Var (“capital of the truffle”); more extensive shops and services in Salernes, in Aiguines and on the shore of Lake Sainte-Croix for the Verdon, and in Draguignan for the big chain stores.

Where to eat

• Restaurant La Truffe — gourmet restaurant · Restaurant devoted to the truffle; menus built around the truffle and produce from the Haut-Var.
• Le Saint-Marc — bistronomic restaurant · A restaurant noted by the Guide MICHELIN, rue Jean-Pierre Aloisi; truffle in season and carefully prepared bistro cooking.
• Le Grand Hôtel (restaurant) — hotel-restaurant · A former post house with a restaurant under a hundred-year-old plane tree, place du Gendarme Duchatel; Provençal cooking and truffle from the Haut-Var.
• Le Petit Provençal des Chouchous — pizzeria-brasserie-crêperie · Pizzas, brasserie, crêperie and ice cream.
• Chez Ta Mère — village bistro · A friendly bistro with a terrace on the square.
• Auberge de la Tour — Provençal restaurant · Provençal cooking, grills and pizzas, rue Jean-Pierre Aloisi (open mainly in season).

Services verified on 7 July 2026.

What to see, what to do

Saint-Pancrace collegiate church

Built from 1489 to 1503 to replace the church that had become too small, in Provençal Gothic style with a Renaissance façade. Raised to the rank of collegiate church in 1499 with the transfer of the chapter of canons from Valmoissine, who resided there until the Revolution. Registered as a historic monument on 15 October 1971 (Mérimée database PA00081526). It preserves a rich collection of sacred art (including a processional cross that ranks among the oldest in Provence, 14th century, and embroidered ornaments from the 17th century); several objects are classified in the Palissy database. In 1905, the republican motto 'Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité' was inscribed on the tympanum.

Clock Tower

A 16th-century tower about 25 m tall, topped with an ornate wrought-iron campanile. Its bell, cast in 1712, bears the inscription 'Je suis la joie de tout le monde' ('I am the joy of everyone'). A sundial on it is dated 1760.

Simon Segal Museum

Housed in the former Ursuline convent, it displays more than 280 works (paintings, gouaches, watercolours, drawings), including a substantial collection of artists of the School of Paris, centred on the work of the painter Simon Segal (1898-1969). The building also houses a space devoted to the Museum of the Resistance.

House of the Truffle of Aups and the Verdon

Opened in 2015, it is devoted to the black truffle ('the black diamond'): history, biology, geology, sociology, planting, cultivation, harvesting (cavage) and marketing.

Monument to the insurgents of 1851 and the Resistance (monument to Martin Bidouré)

A quadrangular obelisk erected in 1881 on the main square (place Martin-Bidouré) in memory of the Var insurgents who fell victim to the coup d'état of December 1851. A marble plaque bearing the names of Resistance fighters and the Appeal of 18 June were later added to the base, linking the memory of 1851 with that of the Resistance. Recorded in the General Inventory of Cultural Heritage (IA83001800).

Chapel of Notre-Dame-de-la-Délivrance

A chapel built in 1852 on the ruins of the old castle overlooking the village.

Château de Taurenne

An olive-growing estate holding the AOC Huile d'olive de Provence designation, planted with several thousand olive trees. It notably showcases the Bouteillan variety, a cultivar native to Aups.

Old village and defensive remains

Medieval streets, gates and rampart towers (including the Porte des Aires), fountains. The old core preserves the layout of the medieval castrum.

History of Aups

The site has been occupied since Antiquity (an oppidum linked to the Oxybii people), on the line of the via Aurelia connecting Fréjus to Riez. The name, from the Latin 'Alpibus', refers to the Alps and gave rise to the forms Alps and then Aups. In the Middle Ages, the town came under the Counts of Provence and then the powerful Blacas family, whose ancestor Pierre d'Aulps founded the chapter of Valmoissine. In 1499, the establishment of this chapter at Aups, by papal decision (attributed to Pope Alexander VI, whose pontificate of 1492-1503 matches this date), accompanied the construction of the Saint-Pancrace collegiate church. During the Wars of Religion, a Protestant attack left its mark on local memory. Aups holds a major place in republican history: in December 1851, the town was one of the main centres of the Var uprising against the coup d'état of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte; the 'battle of Aups' of 10 December 1851 ('the December frost') ended with the repression of several thousand insurgents, imprisoned, exiled or deported to Algeria — a memory kept alive by the 1881 obelisk and the figure of Martin Bidouré. In the 20th century, Aups was a stronghold of the Resistance.

Getting to Aups

• TGV station: Les Arcs-Draguignan
• By road: On the departmental roads of the Haut-Var, at the crossing of the routes to Draguignan, Salernes and the Verdon gorges.
• Nearest airport: Toulon-Hyères

Events & highlights

Aups black truffle festival — January

A major annual festival celebrating the truffle, with a market of truffle preserves and cavage demonstrations (searching for truffles with dogs).