Hautes-Alpes (French pronunciation:[ot.z‿alp]; Occitan: Auts Aups; English: Upper Alps) is a department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azurregion of Southeastern France. It is located in the heart of the French Alps, after which it is named. Hautes-Alpes had a population of 141,220 as of 2019, which makes it the third least populated French department. Its prefecture is Gap; its sole subprefecture is Briançon. Its INSEE and postal code is 05.
Alpes-de-Haute-Provence's main cities are Digne-les-Bains (prefecture), Manosque, Sisteron, Barcelonnette, Castellane and Forcalquier. Inhabitants are called the Bas-Alpins (masculine) or Bas-Alpines (feminine) in reference to the department's former name, Basses-Alpes, which was in use until 1970. Although the prefecture is Digne-les-Bains, the largest city is Manosque. Alpes-de-Haute-Provence's INSEE and postal code is 04.
Hautes-Alpes in the context of Écrins National Park
Écrins National Park (French: parc national des Écrins, pronounced[paʁknɑsjɔnaldez‿ekʁɛ̃]; Occitan: parc Nacional dels Escrinhs) is a French national park located in the southeastern part of France in the Dauphiné Alps south of Grenoble and north of Gap, shared between the departments of Isère and Hautes-Alpes. The park is one of eight regions in France designated as French national parks.
Briançon (French:[bʁijɑ̃sɔ̃], Occitan:[bɾjanˈsun]) is the sole subprefecture of the Hautes-Alpesdepartment in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azurregion in Southeastern France. It is the highest city in France at an altitude of 1,326 metres (4,350 feet), based on the national definition as a community containing more than 2,000 inhabitants. Its most recent population estimate is 11,084 (as of 2018) for the commune.
The Dauphiné (UK: /ˈdoʊfɪneɪ,ˈdɔːf-/DOH-fin-ay, DAW-, US: /ˌdoʊfiːˈneɪ/DOH-fee-NAY, French:[dofine]; Occitan: Daufinat or Dalfinat; Arpitan: Dôfenât or Darfenât), traditionally known in English as Dauphiny, is a former province in southeastern France during the Ancien régime, whose area roughly corresponded to that of the present-day departments of Isère, Drôme and Hautes-Alpes. The Dauphiné was originally the Dauphiné of Viennois.
In the 12th century, the local ruler Count Guigues IV of Albon (c. 1095–1142) bore a dolphin on his coat of arms and was nicknamed le Dauphin (French for 'dolphin'). His descendants changed their title from Count of Albon to Dauphin of Viennois. The state took the name of Dauphiné. It became a state of the Holy Roman Empire in the 11th century.
It marks the boundary between the valleys of the Romanche and the Guisane, a tributary of the Durance which has its source at the col. The valleys are linked by the route départementale 1091 (formerly the national route 91) (Grenoble – Le Bourg-d'Oisans – Briançon). The Lautaret is one of the lowest points on the ridge line which separates the "north" (mainly in the Rhône-Alpes région) and "south" (mainly in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur région) geographic areas of the French Alps.