Prads-Haute-Bléone (French pronunciation: [pʁats ot bleɔn]; Prats Auta Blèuna in Vivaro-Alpine) is a commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department and in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.

[3] The neighboring communes of Prads-Haute-Bléone are Méolans-Revel, Allos, Villars-Colmars, Thorame-Basse, Draix, La Javie, Beaujeu and Verdaches.

It is common with the type of high valleys of the Southern Alps, enjoying a climate which is very sunny, cold, dry, and with a snow line at approximately 1,800 metres (5,900 ft).

[5] The valleys of the southern entrance to the town (Champourcin, Chanolles, Blegiers) are situated in limestone mountains of the Jurassic period.

Further upstream and to left bank of the Bléone, the Carton and the Chau ridges are more recent limestone formations of the Upper Cretaceous.

In front of these formations at the right bank, the Galabre ridge which separates the Bléone Valley is composed of Bathonian limestone.

[3] With respect to seismic activity, the area of Prads-Haute-Bléone is in zone 4 (medium risk) according to the probabilistic classification EC8 of 2011.

They exceed a macro-seismic intensity level V on the MSK scale (sleepers awake, falling objects).

It was produced in the Ravin de la Frache[6] (an Occitan term that precisely refers to a zone of talus),[15] in l'Adret and located beneath the summit of Belle Valette.

During the autumn 1968 rains, more than a year after the start of the sequence, a flow was triggered[15] resulting in a blackish marl-limestone detrital mass[16] and marl-shale colluvium.

[19][clarify] The name of the village, as it appears for the first time the 9th century (Colonia in Prato) is derived from the Latin pratum (pré).

Mariaud appears in the texts at the beginning of the 13th century, but in the form of Mariano: According to Ernest Nègre, the place name derived from the proper Roman name of Marianus, which has evolved from Mariaudo (1319), by attraction to the Provençal local maridado, meaning wedding.

Blegiers is mentioned for the first time in charters in the second decade of the 12th century, in the form de Bligerio, derived from the Germanic name Blidegar, possibly Latinized as Blidegarius.

[29] At the end of 2015, the primary sector (agriculture, forestry, fishing) had 14 active institutions within the meaning of Insee (including non-professional operators and self-employment).

[29][39] The bistro at the Trois Évêchés, which carries the Bistrot de Pays [fr] brand,[40] adheres to a charter which aims to "contribute to the conservation and the animation of the economic and social fabric in rural areas by maintaining a place in village life".

[43] The locality of Prads appears for the first time in charters in the High Middle Ages, as Prato, dependent upon the Abbey of Saint Victor in Marseille.

The coup d'état of 2 December 1851 by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte against the Second Republic caused an armed uprising in the Basses-Alpes, in defense of the constitution.

After the failure of the uprising, severe repression descended on those who stood up to defend the Republic, which included an inhabitant of Prads.

In the Middle Ages, during the 12th century, the village of Blégiers (Bligerium) moved to the Roche-de-Blégiers, on a hilltop site.

From that date, it was the Bishop who appointed the responsible chaplain of the souls of this parish, and who collects revenues attached to this church.

[43] Chanolles was reported as early as 814: The Polyptych of Wadalde indicated that the Abbey of Saint Victor in Marseille had a Cour colongère [fr].

[55] The decline of self-sufficient polyculture continued after World War II, and harvesting wheat was stopped in 1958.

[57] The Church of Mariaud reported to the Abbey of Saint-Ruf [fr] in Valence, but it was the Prior of Beaujeu, who collected the tithe.

[57] As Prads and Blégiers, Mariaud acquired a school well before the Jules Ferry laws, for the hamlet of Vière.

[58] During the French Revolution, the communes of Blegiers and Prads each had a patriotic society, both created after the end of 1792.

From 1954 to 1959 the Foreign Legion set up a camp at a place called Les Eaux-Chaudes, which hosted 30 legionaries.

[61] On 24 March 2015, Germanwings Flight 9525, an Airbus A320 flying from Barcelona to Düsseldorf, crashed in the mountains near Digne in the Southern French Alps and was deliberately caused by the co-pilot, killing all 150 people on board.

The co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, had previously been treated for suicidal tendencies and was declared unfit to work by his doctor.

Though, if the rural exodus [fr] began here later, it affected Mariaud, Blegiers and Prads with equal strength.

[43] This book, very well documented, traces the history of the ancient Abbey of Faillefeu and the exploitation of the homonymous forest.