European Adventure 2013

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Today is tinged with a bit of sadness as we were unable to attend the family celebration for Pauline’s 90^thbirthday held this afternoon at her niece Tricia’s house. We spoke to Pauline yesterday and she sounded in excellent form!

Arlette invited us to participate this morning in a French/English speaking group of which she is a member. They meet each Sunday morning in a coffee shop in Nyons. They were a very lovely bunch of people…mainly French as well as a lady from England & 2 New Zealanders. It was helpful to be able to speak casually to sympathetic people who are all trying to learn either French or English.

Exploring the area around here always results in pleasant surprises. After purchasing a few items at the Provencal market, we made a picnic lunch and headed towards a place east of Nyons called Saint-May. We had seen photos of this area yesterday in a local exhibition and decided we needed to check it out. En route we discovered the village of Sahune where a narrow, winding road led us up the side of a mountain to the old village, largely in ruins but in the process of being slowly restored. The views at the top were remarkable and a table d’orientation was helpful in enabling us to work out what we were looking at. On display was a plaque from a doorway lintel with the date 1562…it had been uncovered during the restoration process. We had lunch at the top of the mountain then headed towards La Gorge du Saint-May.

The whole area would make a wonderful place for a geology excursion…layer upon layer of limestone containing dipping beds, anticlines, synclines & unconformities. There has obviously been much movement in the earth’s crust in the area resulting in these formations & there is also quite a bit of erosion on the mountain slopes…the danger of falling rocks is present for many kilometres.

Saint-May was a very pretty village perched in the mountains surrounding La Gorge du Saint-May. It had an interesting cemetery at the top of a steep hill with more incredible views of the surrounding countryside. We saw vultures soaring in the air near the tops of the mountains in several places. The picturesque riverside village of Rémuzat on was our last stop before heading back to Nyons. Thank goodness we’ve had plenty of time to explore this wonderful area!

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Photos

Sahune
Beautiful vista from old town

Sahune
Beautiful vista from old town 2

Saint-May
Amazing geological formations Saint-May

Saint-May
In the village

Saint-May
Our Citroen C4

Remuzat
The pretty river at Remuzat

Remuzat
Back street in Remuzat