The Gorge du Verdon - Deep into Provence

The Gorge du Verdon is considered to be the Grand Canyon of Europe and gets the full 5 star rating from Barry, Sarah and myself. It is a beautiful canyon that has been carved by the Verdon River, leaving a turquoise river flowing at the base of high limestone cliffs. It is about 21 km long and the cliffs can be as high as 300 mts yet the gorge can be only 6 mts wide in places. It was very spectacular and I felt I had not seen such natural beauty since being in South America.

It was about a one hour drive from our house through some pretty villages. We came across one having a market, so stopped for a better look . Not a bad market for the size of the village either, all set out under the plain trees, with food, produce, flowers, fish, clothing and crafts. There was a large stone church with a steeple and a few narrow roads making up the vieux ville. We wandered for 30 minutes and then sat down in the square for a coffee. Sarah had gone on to buy some strawberries so suggested I order the coffees ‘ trios cafes crème’. It didn’t sound too difficult. Barry said he would like a ‘grande’ so I said 3 café crème, one grande which she understood and 2 ‘moyen’(middle size). So what did we get – 6 cups of coffee – 2 grande, 3 medium and 1 short black. WHAT!!!!! What a misunderstanding. Anyway the waitress was not taking any of the blame, telling me in no uncertain terms that that is what I had ordered. Not an attitude we have encountered before.

We continued the drive around the hairpin bends and into the gorge area and came to the Bridge Artuby which is high above the canyon. I was surprised not to see a few people trying to bungee jump, as it looked like just the place for it. Further on, we came to the most stunning of all views where there appeared to be a wall of limestone with the river snaking around it and then flowing into a huge turquoise lake. We could make out white flecks on the water way down below, which we realised were pedalos or canoes. It was literally breath-taking. Behind us were some very high craggy peaks. This is the spot where Sarah chose for us to have the strawberries and we were wishing we could be washing them down with a bottle of rose as well. Stunning place!