VERDONSKY CANYON - A MIRACLE CREATED BY NATURE!
Verdon Canyon
The Verdon Canyon or Grand Canyon du Verdon is one of the largest canyons in Europe, located in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d`Azur region.
I prepared for the trip very carefully, all the incomprehensible turns, bridges, roads ...I looked at the map on Google, rebuilt my route 8 times, I wanted to go everywhere, not miss anything and, if possible, see as much as possible. And when I told my husband: now there will be an observation deck behind this turn ...or, before entering a small tunnel, there will be a place where to stop ...he always answered: it seems that you have already passed here. And then! I've already looked at almost everything.
Having chosen a bright sunny (+20, or maybe more was in Nice), warm day for this not big, but fascinating trip, in some high spirits we took the direction to Grasse. We drove along the Napoleon road, then the direction of Saint Vallier de Thiey, Escragnolles, along D21, D71, we drive up to the canyon along the southern road.
There are beautiful places here: picturesque hills and slopes, then we go up, where wild rose blooms along the roadsides, then we go down to the valley, where nature is completely different, some trees are just blooming leaves, meadows, yellow from dandelions ...we pass along winding slopes with sharp turns, then along more or less flat terrain we drive up to the Balcon de la Mescla observation deck. The roads are excellent, the traffic is not strong, and in many sections we were driving alone.
Regarding supplies and food. Gas stations are found, but not often. We left with a full tank, and at the first opportunity we topped up to capacity and never thought about it again. I always take sandwiches, fruits, water, a thermos with tea with me, if we leave for the whole day, it happens that you don’t park at a pizzeria or a cafe, you drive further, or you want to have a snack on the seashore, but where to get something, if there is only sea and coast, so their reserves always help out ...
And here you can eat at a restaurant near the Balcon de la Mescla observation deck, in the town of Aiguines, in the village of La Palud sur Verdon, in Castellane, and on the last leg of the journey, my supplies came in handy.
At the bottom of the canyon, which is more than 20 km long and 700 meters deep, the Verdon River flows with a very unusual color of water. From this observation deck Balcon de la Mescla you can see how 2 rivers merge at a depth of about 250 meters: Verdon and Artuby. The Artuby flows here into the Verdon. And then the course of the river Verdon goes into a narrow gorge between the rocks.
We stopped at a restaurant in the parking lot and then walked to the Balcon de la Mescla site. Leaving Nice on a sunny warm day, and dressing accordingly, I didn’t think at all that it could be so cold here: +8, +9 showed the scoreboard on the control panel in the car. When I opened the door, the strongest and even coldest wind instantly slammed it again.
Trees and bushes leaned towards the ground, my light top was blown through and in general it seemed that I was naked at the North Pole. I got into the car again, well, the cold was simply unbearable for me, despite the fact that the sun was shining brightly. The husband, of course, showed resilience and ran to the curb to photograph the gorge. Here drove to the parking lot tour. a bus from which people came out dressed in boots, trousers, jackets, scarves, and some even in hats. That's what prevented me from taking sweatshirts or denim jackets with me ...I just didn't think at all that it could be so cold on May 24th. Then I remembered that there is always a camping blanket in the trunk, if only we didn’t lay it out before the trip, I open the trunk, cheers! On the spot. It was my salvation for almost the entire trip. Wrapped in it, now I went to contemplate and photograph all the beauties.
Cold weather with an icy wind did not prevent us from enjoying the grandiose panorama of the Grand Canyon du Verdon.
Then we drive a little and stop again before and after the imposing bridge over the river Artuby. Everything is still cold here and the same icy wind, but the desire to see everything with my own eyes overcomes the fear of the cold, and I again look at what the bottom of the gorge looks like.
We continue to drive along D71, the road moves away from the gorge, then approaches it. There are no footpaths here and there are no cyclists either, we did not meet either one or the other. Everyone drives slowly, everyone wants to enjoy the beauty, no one overtakes anyone, motorcyclists do not rush here, like on autobahns, so there is no tension. There are a lot of signs on the road, a sign of rockfall is very common, but fortunately, they never fell on us.
Corniche Sublime is the name of the part of the southern road that leads to Lake Lac de Ste-Croix.
There are many viewing platforms, or rather, places where you can stop. Sometimes, this is only for 2-3 cars, no more, and then, if 4 motorcyclists stand in such a place, then it’s no longer possible to park, we come by with regret, but we stop further, at the first opportunity.
Somewhere in the distance, a lake begins to flicker.
Further, the Col d'Illoire road is moving further and further away from the canyon, and a serpentine exit to the lake begins. On the way there will be the town of Aiguines, we stopped there, had a bite, hot coffee was not superfluous at all. You can have a bite to eat in a cafe, or you can on the observation deck. There are tables and benches and a great view of the lake.
Further, along the D19 we drive up to the lake itself. The bridge offers a fantastic view of the gorge with the Verdon River flowing into the lake, on the one hand, and on the other hand, a view of the lake itself.
Probably because of the cold weather, but it was quiet on the lake, no traffic, no boats, water bicycles were visible, only rare especially inquisitive tourists were on the shore. We also walked a little there, breathed the air, and it was not so cold there, and most importantly, there was no this piercing wind. This canyon offers not only auto and motorcycle routes, there are also many walking routes, as well as canoes and motor boats. Two girls are sitting on one of the slopes, most likely they are from a walking route.
How the water in the lake changes: milky-dirty-greenish from the Verdon River, then mixes, dilutes with lake water and becomes completely invisible in the distance. Here we saw several places where you can drive directly to the shore, stop and swim. For those who will be here on a hot summer day - just what you need.
Now, having passed the canyon along one side of it, along the southern road, I perfectly understand those travelers who plan 2-3 days for it, and this is not much at all. If you know that you can’t go around the gorge on both sides in 1 day, then you can linger longer on the observation platforms, dressing accordingly, and on the lake in the summer you can swim, sunbathe, and ride water bikes ...maybe something else is offered. And when we drive along the north side, it becomes clear that you can take small hiking trails and go down to the very bottom of the canyon or ride a canoe or boat.
And we leave the lake and move along D 952 in the direction of Castellane, we go further to the village of La Palud sur Verdon. It should be noted that on this side of the canyon the road comes very close to it at the very beginning and then at the very end, and in the middle somehow goes a little deeper from it.
As soon as we climbed up from the lake, well, you can stop literally every 100 meters, there are sites for this everywhere, and most importantly, what views!
One of the viewpoints is called Escalè s (Belvé dè re de l'Escalè s), there are very sheer cliffs, a real paradise for climbers. I even find it difficult to say which side is more interesting, in my opinion - both, you need to drive from both sides, because this canyon is just a miracle of nature, although not as big as in the USA, but very beautiful!
La Palud sur Verdon, somewhere at the entrance to it or in itself there will be a sign Routes des Cré tes, but we do not turn here. Of course, you can turn off and drive part of the way along the Cretan road, but it’s part of the way, and then you will need to turn back, because here the traffic will be along D 23 counterclockwise, and in this direction this so-called “loop” cannot be driven from the beginning to the end, because
from a certain section of the road, only one-way traffic begins and there is nothing left for everyone but to turn back. Therefore, we pass this sign, we leave the village and a little later another such sign appears: Routes des Cré tes in front of the Auberge des Cretes Hotel. It is here that we turn from D 952 to D 23 and clockwise we drive along the entire Cretan road. The road here, of course, is somewhat killed, it shakes noticeably and this is when driving slowly, but not catastrophically. It leads us to the canyon, first we go up in serpentines, again observation platforms, awesome views, tourists, climbers, then down in serpentines, and at the end it takes us back to D 952.
Further along the road to Castellane there are also quite a few beautiful and interesting places, the road goes down, and again, as from its other end, it gets closer and closer to the river and the canyon, in some places it passes directly under the overhanging rocks, the Chasteuil gorge (Clue de Chasteuil) next to the river, there are campsites, as well as signs to rental boats. What beautiful places there, I would gladly ride a boat there as much as the river allows, admire its bends, waterfalls ...
Here, our batteries in cameras show us the first alarm signal, and I no longer shoot video, I only take photos, in the hope that the charge will still be enough for the rest of the road.
We missed one interesting place, this is Auberge du Sublime bei Le Point Sublime, this is the observation deck of Sublime (Point Sublime). From the parking lot to the observation deck, it was necessary to walk 15-20 minutes both ways, as they say. It's next to Rougon village.
There, from a height of 180 meters, you can also see the confluence of two rivers: the Baou river flows into Verdon. But it was still cold and there was not much time left, because we had to drive back through the Alps, and we wanted to return to Nice not late at night, so we went to Castellane without stopping here.
From Castellane we choose the direction D955, the road goes along the lake Lac de Castillon, then Route des Alpes. Lake Lac de Castillon starts from Saint-André -les-Alpes in the north and stretches almost to Castellane, there are many places to stop. The lake is artificial, formed under the influence of the Barrage de Castillon dam. Beautiful, with an unusual color of water, like all artificial lakes. We pass over a beautiful bridge and after a while we start moving away from the lake into the mountains in the direction of Nice.
Here are a few recent photos, the battery and all the batteries are dead, despite the fact that there was still room on the memory card, that is, there was still room to take photos.
We filmed a lot of videos, so all the chargers were used up. And on this road there are also a lot of interesting things: the rocks, and the gorges, and the valley of the Var river below, in places with no less impressive views than on the Verdon Gorge, partially passed through alpine meadows, where lilacs were just blooming. We passed all sorts of interesting villages Entrevaux, Puget-Theniers, Saint- Julien - du - Verdon, Vergons, Rouaine, Les Scaffarels, but they are all so small, but the road impresses with its picturesque views.
They were very, very satisfied. If someday we happen to be in these places, then the Verdon Gorge will be the first on the list, where we would like to return again!
Continuation and ending will be in October.
