We rented a car on Thursday and took our time driving to our destination for the weekend, the town of Castellane. Castellane is on the Verdon river, which is actually part of an area called the "Gorge du Verdon," what some call the "Grand Canyon of France." For those of you who would like more info, here you go: Le Pays du Verdon.
On our way, we drove through the gorge, which was really spectacular. In some of our previous posts, we've mentioned some of our trips through the mountains, which seem to be sheer cliffs of rock instead of your typical mountain scenery. Well, the gorge didn't disappoint. We stopped for a coffee at a roadside snack bar, which was perched on the roadside just over part of the gorge. Incredible.
After a few hours of winding roads and little ancient villages, we reached Castellane. We stayed in a "mas" or farmhouse, which was just outside of the town center.
The farmhouse, just above the Verdon river.
The access to the B&B was a one-lane road that was barely one-car wide. And there was a small irrigation ditch right next to the road, so you really had to pay attention. One false move, and you're now a boat.
Our room at the B&B was in the attic portion of the house, with its ancient beams and sloping ceilings.
Somehow, we managed NOT to bonk our heads the whole weekend!
The town was a short walk away down the little road, so we walked into town for dinner the first night. Castellane is a really cute little town, right on the river. It's a hub of outdoor activities: rafting, canoeing, hiking, canyoning, etc. We were there at the end of the season, so most of the activity places were closing down or closed already.
On Friday, we went for 2 different hikes, one to the chapel on the rock, the other on the mountain across the river.
The first hike took us up the back side of this enormous, sheer cliff that towers over the town. Back in the day, some lord decided to build a castle on the other side of the rock, and then, being ever-faithful, someone built a church literally on the edge of this cliff.
The church on top of the giant rock.
Looking down onto Castellane and the Verdon river.
We hiked down the back side of the rock in the other direction and came back into the town from the other side. As it was lunchtime, we decided to have our lunch right next to the river, which was running quite high that day.
Lunch at the river
The Verdon river is actually a main source of power for the south of France. There are 5 man-made lakes along the way, each with a power generation dam. The whole system is owned by EDF, the French electric company. They release the water at certain times during the week, so there are all these signs posted downriver to warn you to watch for quickly rising water. Apparently, the rafting companies are notified by EDF when the water will be released, and then they can plan their rafting trips.
The next hike took us across the river, up a trail that was actually much less challenging, although longer, than our first hike. We were headed to the summit of the mountain just across from Castellane, Les Destourbes. Unfortunately, I wimped out about 2 hours into the hike, because I was just feeling crappy. So we headed back to the B&B.
Luckily, I guess, I punked out in time, because literally 5 minutes after we got into our room, the heavens opened and torrential rain poured down for about 2 hours. We took a nap, and by the time we got up, the rain was almost finished. Needless to say, we took the car into town for dinner that night.
The plan for Saturday morning was to head back to a lake we had passed on our way into town and go canoeing up the river. But, alas, this was not to be as I woke up that morning with a raging headcold. And it was pretty cold outside. So instead of being intrepid river explorers, we jumped into the car, headed first to the pharmacy for some cold medicine, and drove a big loop through the mountains into the Haute Provence.
As it was Saturday, most of the towns we went through were having market day. We stopped for lunch in a town called St. Andre les Alpes and they had the market to end all markets.
Sheep, people. They had pens and pens of sheep in the main market area. And a giant two-trailer semi full of them. Oh, the smell...
Baa
Not only was there livestock, they had full-sized tractors (Dad: they had Massey-Ferguson!), other farm and agricultural equipment, clothing, food, wool, soap, honey, etc, etc, etc. It was amazing. And even the farmers in their berets.
Saturday night, we went into town and listened to a jazz combo before we had dinner. There was a small crowd at first, because it had just finished raining (again!), but more folks showed up as the evening went on. We ended up having dinner at this place, and the band didn't stop for a break once! They went on just at 8 or so, and we left the place just after 10.
All in all a good trip. Such a gorgeous area. But unfortunately the headcold lingered and I had to miss two days of work. Oh well. It's only been over a week now...maybe it will go soon...
1 comment:
You lived my dream weekend getaway...well, sans the head cold...
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