Our secret spots in Bauduen: what we actually love in the village

I wanted an article where I’d talk about my favourite spots in Bauduen, the ones that give the village its soul.

Nothing to sell, no ranking. Just the places we love, really, when we’re here. Everything below is in Bauduen itself: not the wider Verdon, not forty minutes’ drive away. In the village, or at its foot, on foot. Small warning though: at the water’s edge, some of these spots only live in summer.

The Bauduen Sailing Centre

Last summer, catamaran lessons with Martin, mother and daughter. Neither of us knew how to hold a helm at the start. An hour in, we were tacking on our own (well… with Martin never far behind in the dinghy, ready to come and fish us out).

At the Centre Nautique, you can do just about anything that glides: BirdyFish, windfoil, wingfoil (the board on a foil, the wing in your hands), paddle, catamaran, dinghy. The lake helps, big and open, with that wind that picks up in the afternoon almost on schedule.

Wingfoiling on the lake, at the Bauduen Sailing Centre.

L’O à la bouche

The place to eat with your feet in the water. The lake takes the whole window. At noon, a direct view onto the water; in the evening, it shifts from jade to ink blue over the meal, and the mountains opposite dim one by one. Both are worth it. Always a table on the lake side.

La petite ruine

Same thing, feet in the water, but more relaxed. You come for the atmosphere as much as for the plate.

The pétanque pitch

The square for doing nothing. Tall trees throw their shade, the lake shimmers at the end. Boules are there for the taking, help yourself; kids run off while the balls roll and clack against iron.

Right next door, the midday café, for the drink to go with the game.

The square and its pétanque pitch; the midday café is right next door.

The brewery

Brasserie Sainte-Croix is Claire and Léo. They brew their own craft beers on site, beers they started making in their garage, and they’re very good. Their programme moves all the time, so best to glance at the board before coming. This summer, it’s a night every Friday: music, cold beers and a food truck parked out front. The village comes back outside once the heat drops, and you linger.

The easiest way to follow what they’re up to is their Instagram.

Pierre’s facade

This one you can see year-round. Walking up an alley, you have to look up: the whole facade is packed with carved stones, sculpted one by one. In the middle of the rough blocks, a lighter stone: three birds perched on a branch, cut straight into the wall. You walk past ten times without seeing them. After that, you don’t look at the village the same way.

Nothing marks it. It’s just there.

Three birds carved in the stone, hidden on a village facade.

The boat tour

The thing to do as a family. The kids fight over the wheel, the grandparents get the best seat, and everyone has a view a car will never give. No licence needed, silent, easy even the first time: you skim the banks, enter the first gorges from the water, cut the motor.

Then, nothing. The water laps against the hull, the cliff throws back the sound, that’s all you hear.

That said, if you’re young, fit, and un-stepping a mast doesn’t scare you, rent a catamaran instead. ;)

A trip on the lake: the other way to look at Bauduen.

The astronomical observatory

When night falls for real, the sky fills up, because there’s no light pollution in Bauduen. Saturn’s rings for the first time, that was there, at the observatory. Karim and Olivier welcome you, telescope already pointed, and show you what the eye alone doesn’t find: the craters on the edge of the Moon, the milky trail of the Milky Way cutting across the sky.

You leave knowing how to name and find every constellation, and how to recognise what hides behind the pinpoints of light: nebulae, star clusters, supernova remnants (still, you have to actually remember them afterwards).

Bring a light jumper, even in summer.

Bauduen’s sky, far from the lights of the city.

The tourist office

For everything else, there’s Sabine at the office. You arrive with a vague idea, you leave with the address you wouldn’t have found on your own. It’s also where you pick up the village map. Download it here.

For more: things to do in Bauduen · activities on Lac de Sainte-Croix · the beach in Bauduen.