France 2005. The Gorges, The Basque country and the Pyrenees
This is part 1 of a 2 month campervan (motorhome?) holiday that spent some time in France and some in Spain. I've tried to separate them into two pages, the Spanish one is even more of a nightmare as we spent some time in the Pyrenees and some in Cantabria plus bits in between. So here's une petite vignette of the French part.
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Vézère and Dordogne
The first scenic area that we came to on our journey from Calais was probably the valley of the Vézère, a typical deep limestone ravine dotted with ancient castles and riddled with caves, many of which had been occupied thousands of years ago. We stayed at the campsite at La Rivière near the village of Les Eyzies, a picture postcard campsite with an entrance through a rose decked archway leading into a courtyard and farmhouse in honey coloured stone. It was like something from a film set. There was lots of archaeology to explore in the area, and we visited the Grotte de Font de Gaume which had numerous cave paintings of elk and bison (see 1) , the Grotte du Grand Roc which sported some of the best and most intricate formations I have ever seen and La Roque St. Christophe (4) a few km upstream at Payzac-le-Moustier which contained a reconstructed medieval village. The village was more of a retreat in times of trouble and was built on long ledge in a bedding plain of a cliff. Recent dating suggests that the retreat has been variously occupied for 55000 years. Remains of ancient rooms and other structures could still be seen.
A few km below Les Eyzies the Vézère river joins its more famous relative, the Dordogne where we swung east to visit the Bastide towns of Baynac de Cazenac and it's fortified Château. The Bastide towns hark back to the 13th and 14th centuries during disputes over the control of southwest France. Both the English and the French combatants constructed lots of these fortified settlements along the 'border' region between the Dordogne and the Garonne . The Château de Baynac was one of several that we visited on our trip. This one was typically perched on the lip of a particularly defensive crag, (2). We paid to go in, picked up our explanatory leaflet and pottered around its rooms and battlements. Like many ancient monuments in France their contents were stripped out during the Revolution.
A further 5 km along the road from the Château was the amazing village of la Roque Gageac, actually built into the crag at a bend in the river where there was barely room for the road to squeeze through. We stayed overnight in a nearby aire and in a moment of madness at 5.30 next morning I decided to get up and take some photographs. Outside a river mist was filling the valley, touching everything with its cold grey fingers. Looking at the results I perhaps should have gone back to bed. Two, la Roque just beginning to clear.
Another day another Bastide town. On top of a crag again, this time it was Domme, (5) pretty though spoiled somewhat by excessive tourism. It was early in the day when we arrived and in a momentary lapse of reason we parked the campervan in the village square. The old granny used to say never park your car at the top of a hill. Well she was right, at the end of a longish walk that day we had to flog up 200m of steep track to recover it.
The Lot
We burrowed south, calling in, as one does, at various towns and sights as the fancy took us. On our way, we diverted to one of the essential ticks in the area, the town of Rocamadour (3) actually nearer the Dordogne than the Lot. Half way up a cliff in the abrupt canyon of the Alzou river Rocamadour takes ones breath away on first encounter. For centuries it has been inundated by pilgrims visiting The Black Madonna, a small wooden carving in the cathedra said to perform miracles and is an essential tick for pilgrims on their way to Compostela. These days tourists outnumber pilgrims and almost every house displays mountains of unbelievable junk. In 1166 a perfectly preserved body was found in a grave high up on the rock. This was assumed to be the body of St Amadour who fled to the town to escape persecution. Since then, the remains have been variously burnt, chopped up and dispersed to the 4 winds by successions of plunderers ranging from the son of Henry II of England to the Huguenots.
We we lucky, being early in the season the town was only moderately busy. There's lots of steps here, I assume that pilgrims once climbed these on their hands and knees.
While in the area, next day we visited the archaeological caves at Pech Merle. These had more beautiful formations and even better cave paintings than those from Font de Gaume, the spotted horses were particularly impressive.
We drifted east, through Rodez, dominated by the red sandstone Cathédral Notre Dame then up the little D904 to the town of Entraygues sur Truyère at the confluence of the Lot and the Truyère rivers. This really was a delightful little town. We camped for 3 nights at the Val de Saures campsite which is on the river bank in idyllic position across from the town and its chateau. While we were there we completed a couple of longish walks using some maplets from the tourist office. The scenery was typical French countryside, partly wooded with flowery meadows and ancient farms and houses.
Picture 6, the bridge over the Truyère, (7) the Chateau at Entraygues - I drew that.
The Gorge du Tarn - Massif Central
I have to admit that the Gorge du Tarn was our favourite valley of the set, probably because of its rocky escarpments that add a bit of drama to the river gorges and extra interest to the walking. We stayed at le Rozier close to the confluence of the Tarn with the Jonte, about 22km NE of the town of Millau - famous for its top of the range leather goods, especially gloves.
The gorge is a legendary tourist trap, and though it was very quiet when we visited in early June, it becomes packed with French holiday makers in July and August. Accommodation is full, the river is full of canoes and the skies full of paraponters. There are 3 campsites in Le Rozier, all accessed down the same little road. On the left was the Municipal site, good but quite expensive, right a private site with basic facilities and straight on Les Paupliers which was cheaper than the municipal, with good facilities and on the banks of the Jonte. That's where we stayed - almost deserted.
We completed several excellent 1/2 - 1 day walks straight from the campsite. There's lots of rock scenery and some of the paths traverse along the escarpments in the most unlikely situations. It was very flowery when we were there which pleased Suzy but added hours onto our circuits. Amongst the raries, we (Suzy) spotted Man and Military orchids. Pictures 8 and 9 typical bits of Tarn scenery.
The French Pyrenees
We moved on, this time southwest to the Pyrenees. Avoiding Lourdes we pressed on towards Pau before turning south into the Vallee d'Aspe, a beautiful valley leading to the Spanish border, then right up the zigzags to the village of Lescun. We stayed at Camping le Lauzart sporting some stunning views towards the Cirque de Lescun, the downside was the 1km walk to the village to visit the occasionally opening minimalist store.
The weather was mixed when we first arrived but little by little it improved to hot sunshine. Being limestone it was all very flowery and we managed to complete a couple of longish day walks, the first from the campsite, the second by driving up to Refuge de Lebérouat and parking there. This enabled us to climb Pic d'Anie 2504m, well some of us did, others sat on a pile of rocks and counted daisies. As well as the series of large snow patches, it was a bit scrambly and scree-y I suppose. Ten, Suzy viewing Pic d'Anie from the Col de Pierre St Martin. Eleven, a more general flowery view of the area.
This was a beautiful area and we did some excellent walking, there were also several gorges worth investigating, the Kakouetta gorge, the Gorges d'Chugarre near St Engrace and the nearby Holzarte gorge with its famous suspension bridge.
Back to the Lot
After several excellent day walks in the area we headed of to Spain, however, we re crossed the Pyrenees towards the end of the holidays and visited amongst other things a place that we missed out on - Conques. Conques, 37km north of Rodez is one of the great little villages of southwest france, occupying a spectacular position on the flanks of a steep wooded gorge of the river Dourdou, a tributary of the upper Lot. It's a slow place to get to but despite that it's a bit of a tourist trap. It's the abbey that made the village and its origins go back to a hermit called Dadon who founded a community of Benedictine monks around 800 AD.
Ste. Foy was only 13 years old when her father denounced her to the Roman proconsul Dacien because she refused to forswear the then-forbidden Christian faith and make a sacrifice to the goddess Diana. She was tortured, beheaded and buried at Agen. Five centuries later her remains were brought (stolen) to the Benedictine abbey at Conques. There she came to rest in a bejewelled golden statue, a likeness 1 metre high, worshipped for the miracles of healing the blind and liberating captives. The abbey is now a prime place on the pilgrim route to Compostela.
The church of Ste-Foy is the centrepiece of the village and very popular. We also visited the adjacent museum which contains some stunning gold and jewelry. Picture 12, the Church of Sainte Foy, and 13, the frieze above the church entrance showing what will happen to you should you misbehave.
Next Stop, Spain