Canyons at the Gorges du Verdun,Provence

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Sunday 1st November
Canyons at the Gorges du Verdun,Provence
The loud music returned in the early hours of the morning and this time we were both woken by it.After lying in bed for a while hoping that those who were playing it might soon give up and go to bed.However,a half hour went by and there was no let up so I got dressed,grabbed our Kathmandu torch and headed outside to track down from exactly where the boom boom was coming from.I wasn’t sure what I was actually going to do if and when I found from where the music was coming.
I walked around our apartment block which has about 20 units on two levels but there was only one unit that had a light on and there was no noise coming from it.
Perhaps they had heard me open the door or had seen the flashlight and turned the music off before I got back into earshot.So I went back to our unit with the mystery of the noise unresolved but at least it had stopped.
When I got back Gretchen said it had stopped soon after I had closed our door so perhaps they had heard me coming after them!!
We didn’t have a problem after that and slept right through until after sunrise.
The owner of the B&B we stayed at near Genoa had told us about the area known as Canyons Verdun which is a drive of about 70 or 80 kilometres away from Trets and the plan today is to head for it and complete a round trip by coming back via another road.
The weather has improved over yesterday and the sun is out so it should be a good day to take a drive and do some more local sightseeing.
We started out on the N7 heading back towards St Maximin la Ste-Baume and then turned inland more on the D560.Everywhere we looked the cultivated land is taken up by vineyards and we can’t remember seeing an animal such as a sheep or cow for a couple of days.
At Montmeyan we came across a Sunday morning market.It was a lot smaller than the one in AeP of yesterday but it still had good variety,just not the number of stalls.We were tempted to buy some of the local olives etc but still have some of what we purchased yesterday to eat and there is no point buying more than what we need or can eat.Here also was an interesting fountain with the water flowing through hanging moss creating quite an unusual look.
We continued on the D13 towards Riez always steadily climbing although we didn’t really notice it at the time.Every so often we would pass through an avenue of deciduous trees in all their autumn beauty.The hillsides too were ablaze of yellow,orange and here and there some red colours on the variety of trees in the process of losing their foliage.
We reached the village of Moustiers Ste-Marie in time for lunch and with no luggage in the back we were able to have a full boot lunch of bits and pieces left over from our purchases in AeP yesterday.
The village presented quite a sight as we approached it.The houses are perched on whatever space had been found to build them against a rocky cliff face.We walked up through the houses and past cafes where other tourists were sitting out in the sun having lunch to climb the steps to a church that was located high up in a ravine behind the village.It was a tough climb not only because it was relatively steep but also because the stones that made up the pathway had been worn smooth by all the people over the years who had taken the same path.Our shoes with plastic soles haven’t been the best in situations like this as they don’t grip as good as we would like.
The church was interesting although with a rather spartan interior but the view out over the village was certainly worth the effort of the walk up the hill.
Then it was on to the Gorges du Verdun which turned out also to be well worth the drive.The road skirted along the sides of a system of gorges that was about 20km in length.The road in many places was high above the river and at times we thought we were back in the USA as the canyon lived up to its name of “the mini Grand Canyon”.
Thankfully we were late enough in the day to have avoided most of the motor bikers that we expect had been on the road a bit earlier.We did encounter a few who like in other places where roads of this type created a challenge for them to take them at speed testing out their ability to take corners at break neck speed.
Our last stop in the gorges was at Sublime Point where the view was quite outstanding over the canyon with a huge sloping rock face and narrow ravine opposite the vantage point.
The road then took us away from the gorges on D955 through a number of small towns and eventually to the city of Draguignan and back into vineyard country again having dropped down from the highest altitude of 1002 metres above sea level that we had got to at the gorges.
Then it was back to the N7 and home to Trets for dinner out to taste something from Provence at a local restaurant.
We hadn’t checked the town out for restaurants but we were sure we had noticed 2 or 3 in the couple of walks we had had to the town over the past couple of days.
However we were to be foiled in our attempt to have dinner out as what we had seen downtown were just cafes which equate to a local bar in NZ and these ones didn’t serve food let alone something special with a Provence flavour.
So in the end we had to opt for a pizza and took it back to our unit.At least it did have a special flavour with herbs(presumably from Provence) that you would not usually get on a pizza in say Italy.
We were also foiled in our attempt to watch either of the last two movies we have with us and had to be content with the Barry Manilow concert DVD while we sat back and cleaned the pizza off.

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Comments

[Rin]

Wow
Hmmm...kinda puts the dirty old Karangahake Gorge to shame doesn't it? :-P