Verified, sourced information
Flow rates, weather, swimming, roads and restrictions: the sources to check before you set off.
EDF flow ratesReleases and levels
WeatherAlerts and forecasts
Roads and accessPasses and closures
SwimmingLakes and river
Fire riskForest access
Water restrictionsCommunes and usesThe Chaudanne dam, just upstream of Castellane, can raise the flow rate from 1.5 to 40 m³/s in a few minutes. Never step into the Verdon's riverbed without checking the day's status with the rafting operators in Castellane first. Everything is explained on our Safety in the Gorges du Verdon page.
Water releases and river level
Ma rivière et moi (EDF Hydro)Flow downstream of Chaudanne reserved for professionals VigicruesLevel and flow of the basin’s rivers 
The danger of water releasesFrom 1.5 to 40 m³/s in a few minutes Storms, heatwaves, wind
Météo-France vigilanceAlpes-de-Haute-Provence (04) and Var (83) 
Today’s forecastsOn our “The Verdon today” page 
When to visit the VerdonSeason by season Passes, closures and roadworks
Route des Crêtes (D23)Closed in winter, open from late March to late November Roadworks and passes in 2026RD 952, Col d’Allos, RD 71 
Inforoute 04Today’s status of the département’s roads Lakes and river: what you need to know
Swimming bansRead at the source on every visit The beaches of Lake Sainte-CroixBank by bank Swimming in the VerdonThe rules and the places Photos: Alpes de Haute Provence, CC BY 2.0 · Serge Golovanow, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Einaz80, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Mathieu Brossais, CC BY-SA 4.0
The rules vary by area, water source and use. The signed order always prevails. A restriction on water use says nothing about swimming.
Prefectural order No. 2026-303-016 of 30 October 2026, valid until 6 November 2026. Within our area: 0 communes in crisis, 0 on reinforced alert, 21 on alert; the others under vigilance.
Read the orderEach commune’s level is read live from VigiEau, further down. When the feed returns nothing for a commune, we write “information not determined” rather than assume a level: check the Var prefecture’s order in that case.
VigiEau, the official source Usual periods, to be confirmed on the day
Route des Crêtes (D23)Late March → late November
Blanc-Martel shuttleApril 3 → November 1 2026
Haut-Verdon passesAllos, Cayolle, Champs
Frequently asked questionsAnswers to the main questions
Communes of the VerdonWater restrictions, commune by communeOfficial sourcesPrefectures, Météo-France, EDF…Our approachDated, sourced informationEvery summer day, the State publishes an access status massif by massif. Here is what it says, what it does not say, and why “is my commune closed?” does not have the same answer on either side of the Verdon.
Reading the official source…
On the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence side, six massifs: ROUGON · ESPARRON-DE-VERDON · MONTAGNAC-MONTPEZAT · CASTELLANE · GREOUX-LES-BAINS · QUINSON.
On the Var side, the one covering the left bank of the gorges — Aiguines, Trigance, Bauduen, Les Salles-sur-Verdon — is Plateau de Canjuers. It is not “Haut Var”, despite the name: that one covers the south-west of the department, around Aups, Régusse and Montmeyan. A massif’s name does not tell you where it is.
There, massifs are small forest polygons that exclude the villages: the one at Esparron-de-Verdon measures roughly two kilometres by two. Not one of our village centres falls inside. So the question is not whether your commune is closed, but whether the trail you are heading for enters a massif. In the Var it is the opposite: the massifs cover the whole territory, your commune included.
The Alpes-de-Haute-Provence publish a closure: it applies or it does not. The Var publishes a level out of five, from green to black. At the second-highest step, access remains possible within the designated public reception areas in the forest (ZAPEF) and nowhere else — a distinction that “everything is closed” flattens.
Tomorrow’s forecast appears the evening before, around 6pm. Before then it does not exist yet: if you are planning tomorrow in the morning, the information is not available — and that is an answer, not an evasion.
The absence of a procedure does not permit everything. Access, works and the use of fire remain governed by the prefectural order — of 16 July 2021, amended on 29 July 2024, for the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence; of 19 June 2018 for the Var.
Reading the official file…
A municipal order may not appear in this file. On site, the commune’s own notice prevails.
The ministry’s file covers only the officially monitored lake beaches. It sees neither municipal orders nor prefectural safety orders. “No site flagged” therefore does not mean “you may swim anywhere”.
Swimming in the Verdon river itself is banned by municipal order in Aiguines, Castellane, Rougon and La Palud-sur-Verdon. This is not seasonal, and the national file does not show it.
Finally, fire risk closes access to the forest massif, not to the water: two distinct decisions, taken by two different authorities.
Regulations of the Parc naturel régional du Verdon
25 bathing sites are officially monitored across our territory, in 12 communes. 14 of them are in the Var: a page that only reads the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence misses more than half.
Sampling ran from to , except for 2 sites at Moustiers-Sainte-Marie (Pont du Galetas and La Cadeno), monitored from to .
The 2026 season is over: no official sampling is taking place at the moment.
Outside those dates, no official sampling takes place: the question “is the water clean?” then has no official answer. Nobody writes this.
A sample measures one point, at one moment. The rhythm is seven to fifteen days. The latest published result is therefore always several days old, and no source can state the water’s condition at the hour you are reading.
The European classification is computed over the last four seasons, at the end of the season. In midsummer, no site in France is classified for the current year — yet the open data still shows a value, and the same site’s official record may say “not classified”. Publishing that value as a quality rating would be an invisible falsehood.
An oil leak at the Quinson dam led to a ban on swimming, water sports and fishing on . It was lifted on . Yet some search engines still serve it in the present tense, undated. An expired notice is not withdrawn: it is dated.
The flow rate in the whitewater section can go from 1.5 to 40 m³/s in a few minutes, with no visible warning. No public live feed exists: EDF reserves access to the flow rate downstream of Chaudanne to professionals under agreement. Castellane's rafting operators receive this information and adjust their outings accordingly — which is why asking them, on the day itself, remains the most reliable way to know before any activity in the riverbed.
Open “Ma rivière et moi”, EDF Hydro’s website →Storms, heatwaves, wind: Météo-France vigilance covers both départements of the Verdon (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence 04 and Var 83). Check both if you are on the left bank of the canyon.
Today's vigilance map →Vigicrues tracks the level and flow of the basin's rivers. Useful after heavy rain or during flood periods, alongside the EDF release schedule.
Check Vigicrues →Every summer, a prefectural order can ban access to forest areas according to 5 risk levels (up to the Black level). Today's status, checked live, is right above on this page.
See the forest access status →For the Haut-Verdon passes and the full 2026 closure details, see our dedicated page.
See roads, passes & RD71 →The Parc du Verdon documents water management (reserved flow rates by section) and regulations by environment. The background reference behind today's figures.
parcduverdon.fr — water management →The Verdon's main seasonal openings — reference dates from the Parc, to be confirmed day by day in the shoulder seasons (that year's weather).
| Site | Opening period | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Route des Crêtes (D23) | late March → late November | Closed in winter (snow/ice). One-way section. |
| Blanc-Martel shuttle (PNR) | April 3 → November 1 2026 | Every day from June 29 to September 14; booking recommended. |
| Haut-Verdon passes (Allos, Cayolle, Champs) | depending on snow cover → late November | Col d'Allos reopened on 12 June 2026. Roadworks until 27 November 2026 (Allos town hall, news item of 29 October 2026): road fully closed until 4 November 2026, then closed Monday to Friday from 8am to 5pm, open at night and at weekends — check today's status on Inforoute 04. |
| Lac d'Allos (road from La Cluite to the Laus car park) | 25 September → 31 October 2026 | Municipal order no. 2026-160: every Friday and Saturday from 5pm to 9pm, the road is closed to motor vehicles going uphill (La Cluite barrier), when it is otherwise open. Downhill traffic stays free and access on foot is maintained; emergency and service vehicles are exempt. Order read again on 14 October 2026; check again with the Allos town hall before you set out. |
| RD 952 — Clue de Chasteuil (between Castellane and the gorge) | Roadworks: Monday 2 November → Friday 11 December 2026 | According to Rougon town hall (notice of 2 October 2026): from Monday 2 November, the road will be closed Monday to Thursday from 8:15am to 12:30pm and from 2:00pm to 5:00pm, and on Fridays from 8:15am to 12:30pm, with two 15-minute reopenings, at 10:00am and 3:30pm, under alternating one-way traffic. The notice mentions no closure at weekends — check today’s status on inforoute04.fr. Read the Rougon town hall notice → |
| RD 952 — Castellane municipality (about 650 m outside the built-up area) | Roadworks: Monday 26 October 2026 → Friday 22 January 2027 | Until Friday 22 January 2027, over about 650 m outside the built-up area (reference points 3+000 to 3+650), alternating one-way traffic is controlled by lights from Monday 8am to Friday 5pm, day and night, and the road may be closed on weekdays, from 8am to 5pm, for up to 10 minutes at a time; at weekends and on public holidays, one direction has priority. Speed limited to 50 km/h. These works are in addition to those at the Clue de Chasteuil (from Monday 2 November to Friday 11 December 2026). Source: Département order no. 26-DRIT-1689-ATX of 12 October 2026 (inforoute04.fr). Read the Département order (PDF) → |
| RD 957 — Bauduen municipality (about 740 m outside the built-up area) | Roadworks: Monday 26 October 2026 → Friday 6 November 2026 | Until Friday 6 November 2026, over about 740 m outside the built-up area (reference points 12+260 to 13+000), alternating one-way traffic is controlled by lights from Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm, for ditch repair works. During these hours, speed is limited to 50 km/h, and overtaking and parking are prohibited. Source: Var Département order no. 2026T2764 of 19 October 2026, published by Bauduen town hall. Read the Département order (PDF) → |
| Skiing at Val d'Allos | December → early April | The Haut-Verdon's winter season, while the canyon rests. |
Reference dates recorded from the Parc naturel régional du Verdon. For the exact status on any given day (passes, shuttle, road), check Inforoute 04 and When to visit the Verdon.
Reading the order in force…
A commune does not carry a single level. It spans several zones — drinking water, groundwater, surface water — and they can be at different levels. La Palud-sur-Verdon carried two at once on the day we built this page. The level shown here is the most severe one that applies to the commune: it is the only one that misleads nobody.
Vigilance, then alert, then reinforced alert, then crisis. Each step adds prohibitions, and they do not all target the same people: some bind the operator of a site, not the visitor.
The official text on fountains carries an exception — those fed by gravity from a spring. A summary loses it, and becomes false in the very villages where fountains are gravity-fed. So we reproduce the order’s wording as it stands, exceptions included.
That is the case for one of those covering the Verdon. When an end date exists, we show it; when it does not, we do not invent one.
We query the 65 communes tracked by the VigiEau feed on and around our territory, one by one. Only those at alert level or above are listed; the others are under vigilance. The order contains many restrictions beyond the two shown here.
That depends on three things worth checking the same morning: the EDF water release schedule (for any activity in the riverbed), the weather vigilance (storms, heatwaves) and, in summer, the forest-access order in case of fire risk. This page gathers the official links so you can check each one in two minutes.
There is no public day-by-day schedule. On mariviereetmoi.edf.fr, EDF Hydro’s official tool, the flow figures downstream of the Chaudanne dam are reserved for professionals under agreement. The safest course is to ask Castellane’s rafting operators, who receive this information. Release days vary with the season and the water situation: never rely on a fixed day.
The Route des Crêtes (D23) is generally open from late March to late November and closed in winter because of snow and ice. For the exact status on any given day, especially in the shoulder seasons, check Inforoute 04.
Three feeds are, since 9 August 2026: access to the forest massifs, swimming bans and drought restrictions, each queried at the source on every visit — with declared unavailability if the source doesn't respond, never yesterday's status shown as current. For the river’s flow rate in the gorges, however, no public real-time feed exists: we send you to the official source instead of inventing a figure. For the weather, our “The Verdon today” page shows live forecasts (MET Norway data); the official vigilance — storms, heatwaves, wind — remains that of Météo-France, to be checked at the source.
The external sources this page relies on, one click away. We would rather you be able to contradict us than ask you to take our word for it.
Real-time traffic conditions on the departmental and national roads of the 04, winter road conditions and pass closures.
This site refuses automated requests: the link opens normally in a browser, but we could not check it ourselves.
Official weather vigilance by département (thunderstorms, heatwave, rain-flood, wind) — the reference signal before setting out.
Government service that publishes flood vigilance and the water levels observed on monitored watercourses.
Official map of access to forest massifs by fire risk level, updated daily in season.
3 of these 4 links responded during our last automated check, on 29 October 2026. A broken link is removed, never left in place.
Page updated on