Le Grand Margès

The Grand Margès is a demanding climb starting from Aiguines, on the left bank of the Verdon, up to one of the highest summits overlooking the gorges. You climb along the GR99 to a viewpoint that takes in both the Gorges du Verdon and Lake Sainte-Croix. Expect a sporty outing: more than 800 m of ascent for a summit topping out at around 1,577 m. Here’s what the sources say — and where they still disagree.

Verified on 5 July 2026 using Plaisir des Cimes, AllTrails (point of interest), Visorando, and hiking fact-sheets from the region; summit confirmed at around 1,577 m, start from Aiguines along the GR99. Parc naturel régional du Verdon fact-sheet re-read on 11 October 2026: 13.8 km out-and-back, 5 h 30 min, high point of the route at 1,567 m.

The essentials

The truth about the numbers

Two points are not settled to date, and we’d rather show that than invent a single value.

1. The summit’s altitude — unsettled. Sources range from 1,570 m (moustiers.fr) to 1,577 m (voyageavecnous.fr), with 1,571 m recorded by toporandos; the Parc naturel régional du Verdon fact-sheet gives 1,567 m for the high point of its route. The 1,500 m value (decouvrirensemble.com) is discarded as wrong. So we keep an order of magnitude — “around 1,577 m” — without certifying any official figure.

2. The distance depends on the variant. There isn’t a single “Grand Margès” but several routes (short out-and-back, long out-and-back, loop), each with its own distance. Letting them coexist honestly is better than imposing just one.

What you see and what you cross

• The summit panorama: a plunging view over the Gorges du Verdon and Lake Sainte-Croix — the reward for the climb.
• One of the highest summits overlooking the gorges: Outdooractive presents it as the highest, but since that claim isn’t officially sourced, we stay cautious.
• The village of Aiguines at the start: perched at around 780 m above sea level (781 m at the town hall according to the IGN elevation model), on the left bank of the gorges.
• A route rated “difficult” by the Parc naturel régional du Verdon, whose fact-sheet is published by the regional portal provence-alpes-cotedazur.com (updated on 31 August 2026).

What’s still missing

We’d rather state it clearly:

• The summit’s official altitude is still to be settled (1,570 m vs 1,577 m; 1,567 m for the high point of the Park’s route) — no source is clearly authoritative to date.
• The number of reviews isn’t documented: the rating found (5/5 on Outdooractive) isn’t backed by a published volume of reviews, so we don’t display it as a reliable score.
• The exact route of the full loop compared with the out-and-back is still to be pinned down.

These fields will be completed as soon as a reliable source documents them.

Sources

Data cross-checked and verified on 2026-07-05: moustiers.fr, Visorando, Outdooractive, voyageavecnous.fr, decouvrirensemble.com, Plaisir des Cimes, AllTrails (POI), toporandos, Parc naturel régional du Verdon fact-sheet published by provence-alpes-cotedazur.com (re-read on 2026-10-11; the cheminsdesparcs.fr page for this route was not found). Discrepancies kept and flagged above. No invented data: a missing field is flagged as such.