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An observatory in southern France, 100 km (62 miles) north of Marseilles, at an altitude of 650 metres (2,100 feet) in the foothills of the Alps. It was established in 1937 as a national facility for French astronomers and is owned by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).
The main instrument is a 1.93-metre (76-inch) reflector which has been operated since 1958. A 1.52-metre (60-inch) telescope, operating since 1967, is equipped only with a coudé focus and a modern spectrograph introduced in 1989. There are also 1.2-metre (47-inch) and 80-centimetre (31-inch) telescopes, and a 60/90-centimetre (24/36-inch) Schmidt camera.
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