Tag Archives: Verdon Gorge

France – Burning Carbon

Blasdale Home Posted on by

10th September 2022

Another lovely day in France. Today was just a day of driving around the hills of the Verdon. We started off heading on the D952 to Lac de Sainte-Croix. During the morning it was a vivid blue and looked beautiful, surrounded by white beaches. But we couldn’t find anywhere sensible to park – several low 1.8m barriers blocked our way.

Instead of enjoying the boating, we headed for the hills and drove to Aiguines where we had a coffee and a sandwich. This town hosted an amazing museum of wood turning, specifically turning boules, before the French turned to using solid metal spheres. The museum was even more amazing in that it was open during lunch. These boules were turned out of box wood roots, and then were encased with nails which resulted in encasing the wooden sphere with metal. We both picked up a mallet that was typically used to knock in the nails. Very heavy.

After the museum stop, I insisted we travel on a route to Pont de l’Artuby on the D71. This road was on the other side of the gorge we had travelled on yesterday. It was a lovely ride with precipitous drops down into the gorge. We arrived at the bridge and watched humans plunge off the bridge to the floor below, to be saved by the elastic thread attached to them and the bridge. Shades of our trip to New Zealand.

We continued our journey on the D71, turning off to onto the D90 to descend to Trigance. After passing Trigance we turned left onto the D955, heading North along more precipitous gorges. All along the way we had motorbikes following or coming towards us. It was a hot weekend, so the bikes were out in force.

At Pont de Soleils we turned west) onto the D952 and headed home, passing through Point Sublime. Along this route are deep valleys, we saw vultures gliding into their homes. Now we were on home territory, so continued on to Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, making fast passage until we caught up with two motorhomes who only turned off our route a kilometre from home.

Rosemary purchased a couple of local beers from the campsite, brewed only 200 meters away. A brown and blonde ale, flavoured with honey. Not session ales at 7.00 and 5.9, but a delightfully different taste.

Supper was Puy Lentils (imported!!) with tomato, red pepper, lardons and onions.

I enjoyed the journey, these narrow, steep and precipitous drives are exhilarating. Rosemary was meant to enjoy the scenery but turns out she was worried that she would end at the bottom of a valley, or that Morrison would be scraped along the mountain side.

BMW motorcycle and sidecar

Rosemary loved this BMW bike and side car at the campsite.

France – Vultures

Blasdale Home Posted on by

9th September 2022

Today we took Morrison on an outing into the Verdon Gorge. First, we visited Rougon, a small village on top of a cliff overlooking Verdon Gorge. Here we ate lunch at Crêperie Le Mur d’Abeilles. We had visited the same Crêperie three years before on the geology trip. We initially sat outside, but a few droplets from the sky saw us scurrying inside. This was soon over, and we went back outside before our crêpes arrived. The vegetarian aubergine and tomato crepe was so delicious. We caught glimpses of vultures in the distance, spotting a maximum of six at a time. Too far off to photograph.

We went back down the hill turning on to the D952, heading back in the direction of Moustiers, and at the Auberge des Crêtes we turned up on the D23 to where we could get a good view of the Vultures. When we had passed this junction on the way to Rougon, the road had been closed. It was now open in the afternoon. No idea why it had been closed.

This road is a fabulous road to drive on, with switchbacks, tight corners, precipitous edges and tunnels. In one section it is one way, and so should be driven only from east to west. We stopped at the second pull-off on the route, which is Belvedere de Trescaïre haut. This stop is only a mile along the road, and parking for several cars, and precipitous cliffs. You are safe with the sturdy fencing.

We stopped here for several hours and waited for the vultures. There were not many around at first, but they came eventually. (French lunch?) There were several other photographers with large lenses, a Nikon, Sony, and my Canon, and then another Canon materialised. One motorcyclist who did not have a camera said he came every couple of weeks to photograph the vultures. He usefully pointed out new vultures while you were concentrating on a receding bird.

One thousand pictures later, we left and continued the trip around the D23. Coaches do the same trip, not sure I would like to drive around some of the hairpins and narrow tunnels in a coach. The drivers though were arrogant, one forcing a car at Belvedere de Trescaïre Haut to leave by reversing up to them and forcing the occupants to make a strategic departure. I think I would have stuck to my guns and not moved on.

On the route we stopped off at several viewing spots to snap a few pictures. It was interesting to see the valley from different perspectives.

We arrived back at the campsite for a well-earned beer and then supper, but first we reattached the awning to the Morrison.