Camping Le Tampico

From the bottom of the site, Barcelonnette is a scenic 20-minute walk along the Ubaye river, an aquatic playground known for its rapids. You can raft and fish on the water or see it from a different angle by venturing on a paragliding trip high above the valley. Back in Barcelonnette, this town of colourful architecture and a backdrop of huge mountain peaks experiences 300 sunshine days a year. In the summer months, it also feels like a fiesta happens every five minutes in the area, from the Festival des Enfants du Jazz in July to the Alpes Aventure Motofestival in early September. For culture at any time, the town hosts the Museum of the Ubaye valley in a handsome villa, filled with curio curated from as far as Mexico and Japan. Alternatively, you can wander the streets, dipping in and out of the boutiques. To stick with nature, mountains, waterfalls and gorges are plentiful in Mercantour National Park; to the north west of the area around 50 minutes away is Lac de Serre-Ponçon, one of the biggest lakes in western Europe with its bright blue glacial water.