A timeless parenthesis, a moment of disconnection to listen to the surrounding nature. The Promenade Museum from the top of its tuff peak offers one of the most beautiful views of Digne les Bains. Museum Interpretation CenterUNESCO Geopark of Haute Provence, it offers visitors a multiple journey between geological times, artistic discoveries and contemplation of nature.
Ramparts with a view!
Digne-les-Bains from the house of the ramparts.
A path to connect the entrance to the site and the house of the ramparts
The Promenade Museum Park
From the reception, several paths with varied atmospheres lead to the house of the ramparts.
The water trail
Going up the water and winding under the trees, refreshing, it is punctuated with artistic installations and invites you to a meditative discovery of the site. It comes as close as possible to the Grande Cascade. Internationally renowned artists came at the invitation of the CAIRN art center: Andy Goldsworthy, Joan Fontcuberta, Paul-Armand Gette, Catherine Marcogliese, Sylvie Bussières have imagined works linked to this magical place. Most of them were produced during artist residencies. These facilities will offer you an original approach to discovering the park.
The ramparts path
This path climbs the old ramparts (13th century). It allows you to observe traces of tuff mining and offers a clear view of the mountainous setting of the town of Digne-les-Bains and the Bléone valley.
It is on this path, at the bottom of the waterfall that you can, if you are lucky, see a mermaid! A hydropithecus more precisely from the imagination of the Catalan artist, Joan Fontcuberta.
The Cairns Trail
Andy Goldsworthy created this trail in 1998. This British artist is one of the main representatives of Land Art: a movement where the artist invests nature and landscapes to create sometimes ephemeral work from materials collected in nature.
The Cairns Trail takes its name from the five “water cairns”. From top to bottom, the first is dry; in the next three, we hear the water without seeing it; it springs from the last to join the natural environment.
The water circulates inside the sculptures, like a poetic metaphor of the Saint-Benoît spring, at once underground, invisible and gushing...
This path is recommended for going down from the Maison des Ramparts to the reception.
Two thematic gardens to discover in the park
The Japanese garden
This garden was created in honor of the town of Kamaishi in Japan, twinned with Digne les Bains since 1994. The Japanese had a cast made of the famous ammonite slab which they installed in the town museum.
The Kamaishi garden symbolizes the journey through life. To grasp its full meaning, you have to explore it from the bottom up. Along the route, the blooms are spread out in time and space, so that each season corresponds to the ages of life. When we cross the bridge, we enter the world of spirits...
The butterfly garden
Thanks to the water from the Saint-Benoît spring and a specific environment, in a climate that is both Mediterranean and mountainous, the Museum-Promenade park is a mecca of biodiversity. To create an oasis suitable for the feeding and reproduction of Lepidoptera, the plants in the butterfly garden have been carefully selected. From April to September, more than a hundred species of native butterflies can be observed in the wild.
A museum space
The House of Ramparts
A large part of the promenade museum's collections are dedicated to the last 300 million years of Earth's history through hundreds of fossils.
The complete casting of an ichthyosaur skeleton and its reconstruction, life-size and in 3D, recalls the presence of predators and the intense life that existed in the seas of the Secondary Era (or Mesozoic).
Temporary exhibitions enliven the museum and the global network of UNESCO Geoparks is in the spotlight.