Photo : Einaz80 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Le rocher de la Baume
The Rocher de la Baume is a limestone cliff with almost vertical strata facing the citadel of Sisteron. With the citadel rock, it originally formed a single ensemble of marine deposits, uplifted and folded at the birth of the Alps. The Durance then carved a narrow cluse between the two, a passage used by roads and the railway since Antiquity. The alternation of hard bars and softer beds attacked by erosion gives the whole an unusual look.
The La Baume district nestles between the rock and the Durance. The site is popular with climbers, with about a hundred routes of varied difficulty, and also offers hiking routes and a via ferrata, with fine views of the citadel and the river. On the way back, the church of Saint-Dominique, dated to the thirteenth century, deserves a stop for its Lombard bell tower, two-coloured stones, band of arches and spire.
