Il pleut aussi en Provence

I'm in the middle of a week in Provence around the Gorge du Verdon, preparing for a week in September, guiding for my favourite walking group. I'm travelling light and camping in Moustiers Sainte Marie, which is a picturesque medieval town a few miles away from the gorge itself.

Le Styx

This trip is slightly complicated by the fact that it has hardly stopped raining since I got here on the 11th April, which is never a problem if you've somewhere nice and warm to return to after your day out, but becomes a bit wearing when you're back to Vic Archer's tiny one man tent ( which he kindly lent so I could stay within my Ryanair baggage limit). I've also had to scrape ice off the car's windscreen one morning, which is more than I had to do this winter in the UK!
Anyway, the walking. I spent the first day in the gorge, firstly on a little used path traversing above the left bank, which led me to the Sentier l'Imbut, which is one of the least walkable paths I've trodden in France; you certainly can't do it with your hands in your pockets. It descends steeply to the river level and then follows the river downstream the Le Styx, via lots of rocky steps and ledges protected by cables stanchioned to the rock. At Le Styx the watercourse narrows to a couple of metres and flows between smooth, sculpted and scooped limestone rock. And it's here that the 'walk' becomes most interesting, following overhung ledges blasted from the vertical rock by Frenchmen bearing dynamite. Eventually you escape upwards (where they ran out of explosives, I guess) on the Trail Vidal, and this is not a trail at all - it leads vertiginously up near vertical cliffs, hugging a cable, into a steep gully to a final scrambly steep exit. All very intrepid.
Day two was a walk I really liked; above the gorge just where the Verdon river spills into the Lc de Ste. Croix. This pathway is small and not so frequently walked but it has fantastic views down to the turquoise river. This gradually climbed across the hillside, crossed some rocky ledges and then a vicious 250m ascent up to a high Belvedere.

Verdon Gorge from Pointe Sublime

Since then I've been exploring the area a bit more generally; heavy rain this morning meant a drive out to recce to Pointe Sublime, the finishing point for the Sentier Martel and a drive along the Route de Cretes. This was partly for old time's sake, remembering climbing in the gorge in 1996! Anyway, that's enough for this blog entry - my supper's waiting. More later.