Mercantour National Park

On 26 December 1859 Victor Emmanuel II created a royal hunting reserve on the Mercantour and Argentera massifs, and the park’s history starts there. The road to a national park took more than a century:

1. 1860: after the Treaty of Turin, the Mediterranean side around Tende and La Brigue stays Italian.
2. June 1940 and April 1945: the Authion is the scene of fighting.
3. 20 November 1946: the Conseil général of the Alpes-Maritimes first calls for a park.
4. 10 February 1947: the peace treaty; Tende and La Brigue had stayed Italian until then.
5. 18 August 1979: decree no. 79-696, signed by Raymond Barre, makes the Mercantour the sixth national park in France, 33 years after the first call.

A park of 730 mi² that runs into Italy

The territory is 93 mi long, about two thirds in the Alpes-Maritimes and the rest in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. It splits into two zones:

• The core: 262 mi².
• The area of adhesion: 468 mi² across 24 communes, home to about 20,300 permanent residents (INSEE 2021).
• Along the frontier, nearly 21 mi of ridges shared with Italian Piedmont.

No physical border separates the park from Italy’s Alpi Marittime nature park, created in 1995: since 2013 the two have formed a European park (EGTC). The Mercantour is also twinned with Banff National Park in Canada.

Inside the core, the Roche Grande integral reserve at Entraunes, about 500 ha created on 4 September 2021, is left to evolve freely, with no human activity or presence allowed.

Limestone, crystalline rock and Mediterranean storms

The axis of the Tinée splits the park into two great massifs:

• To the north-west, a massif of limestone or schist.
• To the south-east, a crystalline massif shared with the Argentera.

The climate is alpine in the north and Mediterranean in the south. Winters average about 5 °C warmer than at the same altitude in the northern Alps, yet rainfall tops 1,000 mm a year and summer storms are frequent.

The landscapes change with the rock:

• In the upper Var, the red pelites of the gorges de Daluis earned them the nickname of the “Colorado niçois”.
• Further west, the glacial lac d’Allos, at 7,310 ft under five towers of grès d’Annot and the mont Pelat (10,007 ft), is the largest natural lake in Europe above 7,218 ft.

Wolves, bearded vultures and 8,951 animal taxa

The park records 8,951 animal taxa, and in the core every animal species is strictly protected.

• Emblematic species: golden eagle, Alpine ibex, chamois, bearded vulture, griffon vulture, stoat, rock ptarmigan, grey wolf, marmot, black grouse, red deer and Mediterranean mouflon.
• Two endemics: Strinati’s cave salamander and the spider Vesubia jugorum.
• The wolf came back in 1992. Herders now guard their flocks with shepherds, night pens and livestock guard dogs (Pyrenean Mountain Dog or Patou, Anatolian Shepherd or Kangal, Spanish Mastiff), which walkers meet on the high pastures.

Feeding wildlife is a bad idea: the marmot is greedy, but human food can make it ill.

Plants and the night sky

The flora is just as rich: 2,067 confirmed plant species, more than half of the flora of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, with nearly a hundred endemic species in the broad sense, such as the potentille de Valdieri (Valdieri cinquefoil) in the upper Gordolasque.

At night, the Alpes Azur Mercantour international dark sky reserve, awarded in December 2019 and the 14th in the world, covers nearly 888 mi² and 74 communes, part of the core included, with more than 3,000 stars visible.

The engravings of Mont Bego

Around Mont Bego (9,423 ft, commune of Tende), the vallée des Merveilles and the Fontanalba valley hold about 40,000 rock engravings:

• on 4,000 rocks;
• between 1,900 and 8,858 ft;
• over 6.6 mi².

An order of the park’s director adds its own rules to those of the core, and access has tightened over time:

1. 1989: the site is listed as a historic monument.
2. 1999: free access to the engravings is limited to certain paths; elsewhere, only people led by an approved guide may enter.
3. 2024: the public service concession for guided visits is renewed for five years.
4. 2024 surveillance season: wardens issue 3,172 reminders of the rules, for metal-tipped poles, leaving the path, getting too close to the engravings and bivouacs.