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How dark is the sky in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur?

Sky darkness for 13 towns and parks in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, worked out from NASA satellite images of light at night (2025). 2 of them have skies of Bortle 4 or darker, where the Milky Way shows overhead. The darkest is Écrins National Park (21.68, Bortle 4), the brightest Toulon (18.48, Bortle 7). Milky Way season in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur runs April to August: on moonless nights the bright core stands clear of the horizon, climbing to about 18° at its highest.

19 Bortle class, 1 pristine to 9 city center park or dark-sky place city

Numbers like 21.95 or 16.97 are the brightness of the sky overhead on a clear, moonless night, in mag/arcsec². The scale runs backwards: a lower number means a brighter sky, from about 22 for a natural sky to about 17 in a city center.
How the readings are made

NASA satellite night-lights map of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur with every place marked

Darkest skies in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

  1. Écrins National ParkBortle 421.68
  2. Alpes Azur MercantourBortle 421.51

Among the places on this site. Plenty of land between them is just as dark, with no town or park to name it by.

Brightest city skies in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

  1. ToulonBortle 718.48
  2. MarseilleBortle 718.58
  3. NiceBortle 718.72
  4. CannesBortle 718.83
  5. Aix-en-ProvenceBortle 619.09

All 13 places in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

Amber names are parks and certified dark-sky places. The figure is the Bortle class: 1 darkest, 9 city center.
Aix-en-Provence6Alpes Azur Mercantour4Antibes6Arles5Avignon6Calanques National Park5Cannes7Fréjus6Hyères5Marseille7Nice7Toulon7Écrins National Park4