The Durance starts in the "pré de Gondran" ("meadow of Gondran"), on the east side of the "Sommet des Anges" mountain, in the "commune" of Montgenèvre (a ski resort near Briançon), Hautes-Alpes department, at an elevation of about . It then flows to the southwest through the departments of Hautes-Alpes, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Vaucluse and Bouches-du-Rhône.