Navacelles

One of the coolest places to see in France (in my opinion) is Cirque de Navacelles, described by wikipedia:

The Cirque de Navacelles is large cirque landform, located towards the southern edge of the Massif Central mountain range in France. It is located near Saint-Maurice-Navacelles and Blandas between the Hérault département and the Gard département.

After the cirque’s formation by glacial erosion (approx. 3 million years ago), a river channel cut through the base of the valley, creating an Oxbow lake within the cirque, a loop in the river that eroded itself through. The lake later dried up, leaving deposits of silt and peat. This created what is the only patch of arable land for many, many miles around.

Roads in the area are very poorly maintained and are only suitable for one vehicle to pass on. In order to pass the landform, a dangerous, although exhilarating road which weaves down into the valley and clings to the sheer cliff face on the way back up must be braved. This journey is one of the draws for tourism in the area.

Exhilarating doesn’t really begin to explain it.  The road down into the village is treacherous and scared the bejesus out of me!   The worst part is once you go down you gotta go back up, although that part isn’t quite as bad.

Below is a sort of makeshift panorama I made to try to show what it looks like from one of the look offs.  You can see the village waaaaay down below.  If only my camera had a proper panorama option it might look a bit better.  Click here for a larger version in which you can actually see things.

The village was pretty dead, as many places are at this time of year in the south of France.   I think it only starts coming to life in June when the tourists really start pouring in.   It was nice though, I think both Xander and I preferred being able to walk around in peace rather than pushing our way through crowds.

That was such a beautiful day and we had driven so long sight seeing already.   After sorting through the photos I’m so glad we kept on and went to see it.   I had already seen it once years ago but that was in the winter and I didn’t have such a nice camera.   Now I have some great pics to remind me of all the even greater memories!