Trail du Diois

The Trail du Diois is a 55-kilometer race with 3,200 meters of elevation gain that crosses the Diois country, a mid-mountain territory nestled between the Vercors to the north and the Baronnies to the south, in the Drôme department. Starting from Die, a small Roman-era city sheltered in the Drôme valley at the foot of the Glandasse massif's cliffs, runners embark on a traverse of pre-Alpine landscapes bathed in Mediterranean light, where lavender fields stand alongside black pine forests and vertiginous limestone cliffs.

The Diois is a transitional territory, a geographic and climatic hinge between the Alpine and Mediterranean worlds. This duality can be read in every element of the landscape: the north-facing slopes, shaded and humid, are covered with dense beech forests that recall mountain woodlands, while the south-facing slopes, bathed in sunlight, carry garrigue vegetation — thyme, rosemary, boxwood, holm oaks — that exhales the perfumes of Provence. The trail course plays on these contrasts, offering shifting atmospheres with every ridge crossed and every valley traversed.

The Glandasse massif, which towers over Die with sheer cliffs rising more than 800 meters, is the course's showpiece. This fortress-mountain, a southern extension of the Vercors plateau, offers spectacular passages along rock-carved trails, airy ledge crossings, and sustained climbs over grassy slopes dotted with wildflowers. The summit, at over 2,000 meters, opens a grandiose panorama over the Drôme Pre-Alps, Mont Ventoux to the south, and the first Alpine summits to the northeast. The 3,200 meters of elevation gain, concentrated over just 55 kilometers, give this trail a particularly demanding elevation-to-distance ratio.

The Diois is also a wine-growing land, birthplace of Clairette de Die, a sparkling wine produced since Roman antiquity using the ancestral method — the oldest sparkling wine technique in the world. Runners cross clairette and muscat vineyards tiered on the sun-drenched hillsides of the Drôme valley, between the honey-stone villages of Pontaix, Saillans, and Chatillon-en-Diois. Organic farming here is a tradition rather than a trend: the Diois is one of France's pioneering organic territories, with one of the highest densities of certified producers in the country.

For international runners, the Trail du Diois is an opportunity to discover a hidden gem of southeastern France, a territory preserved from mass tourism that offers a rare quality of life and authenticity. Die is accessible by train from Valence (TGV, 1h15 from Paris) or by car from Grenoble and Gap. The region offers charming accommodation — rural gîtes, bed-and-breakfasts in stone farmhouses — and a terroir gastronomy where picodon goat cheese, lavender honey, and Diois lamb naturally accompany a glass of sparkling Clairette. It is a human-scale trail, demanding in terrain but generous in landscapes and hospitality, in a corner of France that has preserved what matters most.

Trail du Diois is a 55 km trail race with 3,200 m of elevation gain, located in Die, Drôme. The next edition is scheduled for 21 June 2026.

Find all official information on the race website.