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.