Les hauteurs de Crots

The Durance is the most important river in Provence and the third largest tributary of the Rhône, behind the Saône and the Isère. It rises in the Hautes-Alpes in the municipality of Montgenèvre and is soon joined by the Clarée and Guisane rivers, which flow past it despite being longer and having a greater flow at the confluence point. The Durance valley has been a major communication route for centuries, and its capricious nature has been controlled by the artificial lake at Serre-Ponçon and a canal running downstream. The old proverb from the Ancien Régime, which once claimed that "the three scourges of Provence are the Mistral, the Durance and Parliament", has now been forgotten, and the Durance now brings nothing but life to the land it irrigates..

This footbridge, which was completed in 2019, links Embrun with Crots and Baratier. Although it is a recent development, it actually boasts a long history. It stands on the exact site of the temporary bridge that replaced the La Clapière road bridge from 1953 onwards, which was destroyed during the Second World War by resistance fighters from the Embrunais area after the failure of an American bombing to do so. The aim was to prevent German forces from sending reinforcements to Gap, whose liberation was imminent. Although the bridge managed to withstand the American bombs, several people were killed and an explanatory panel on the footbridge pays tribute to them today..

You will come across numerous irrigation canals in the fields and along the roadsides. They are distributed strategically so that the various plots can be irrigated, by opening and closing valves. This age-old technique makes it possible to control the water flows according the farmers' needss.

This plant is a member of the carnation family. This campion can be recognised primarily by the flower calyx. This is inflated into a roundish shape. A very common plant across the department of Hautes-Alpes, it produces white flowers from April to September. The petals of the bladder campion can lose their turgidity and wilt during the day, but they regain their shape at night.