Lac du Santa Croix and the Grand Canyon du Verdon

This blog relates to two of the most beautiful areas we have seen since we have been in France, so I make no apologies for the number of photos.  Following our morning driving through the beautiful hill top villages of Provence we arrived at Lac du Santa Croix.

This is a man made lake now owned by EDF. It was created in 1974 when the valley was dammed. I do not know how much controversy was caused by creating this lake but I do know one village was completely flooded, Les Salles du Verdon, and was rebuilt adjacent to the lake but also many farms were destroyed.  What has been created is a beautiful lake that now brings water to many in this region as well as power generation.  But enough of the politics it was an idyllic camping spot for Mike and I to stay.  We were also fortunate to meet a Belgian gentleman who gave us some in depth information about the Grand Canyon du Verdon. I had seen this place listed on the map but had read little information about it.  I am so pleased that we found out more about the area and did not miss this awe inspiring site.
The canyon is 25 kilometres long and in parts is 700m deep.  Our plan was to visit it tomorrow, so you can imagine our disappointment when we awoke to rain - not the weather to go exploring canyons but we set off hoping things would improve.  We left the lake and we took a road high above the lake to Moustiers - Ste- Marie, another hilltop town backed by towering cliffs with numerous waterfalls cascading down.  By lunchtime the rain had eased so we decided to try the canyon route.  The road rose upwards even more and the scenery became more and more spectacular.  As we climbed upwards the rain became snow.  This meant that one of roads we had been advised to use was closed so we continued on a more major road. Further down this route we came to a parking place called Vue Sublime. We parked here and a 10 minute walk took us to the edge of the gorge.  The views made you feel dizzy, the drop down was tremendous and you could see the river, bright green, snaking below.  Heading back to the van we saw huge birds circling overhead which we later identified as griffon vultures.  Later we saw 10 of these birds resting high on the rocks above us.  By this time a local trader had arrived and he managed to part us from our euros in exchange for some raspberry and pepper vinaigrette and a cherry syrup.    He told us more about the vultures which had been introduced here. He also said that our 'closed road' was probably open by now.  So we retraced our steps so that we could explore this stunning area further.  The road still had a closed sign but we drove through anyway. There were numerous stopping places for phots and we continued upwards until we hit a bend covered in snow and ice.  Not wishing to take our van any further we parked on the edge of the road just as a snow plough came through.  We decided to get the bikes off and continue our journey to the summit.  Mike flew up the hill but whether it was the higher altitude or I am not as fit as I had hoped I found it a difficult climb but I did make it to the top where the route was definitely barred.  I really enjoyed the downhill cycle! but it was pretty chilly.  We felt we had got as much of the area as we could without actually walking the gorge so we headed back down and drove around the other side of the lake and back to our camping spot.