On one such morning, we stumbled from our beds with eyes half-closed, and dragged crying kids out of their warm beds, and tumbled into the car for a 2-hour drive to the Gorges du Verdon and the Lac de St Sainte-Croix (thanks, YL!). The gorge is a vertigo-inducing 700m deep, and there are 3 ways to explore it - drive around the edges of the top of the gorge, walk beneath it, or go on a boat down the river beneath it. We quickly rented a pedal boat from the first boat rental company we saw when we arrived at 10am, and spent the next 2 hours pedaling furiously down the river under the hot sun, while pining for the motor-powered, shaded boats with relaxed drivers in them gliding smoothly down the river next to us.
First, he used my sunhat to avoid the sun
Then he found that this is a much cooler way
The kids enjoyed the ride. Every now and then, they would yell at us, "Pedal faster, Mamma Baba!" And we would roll our eyes and pant louder to get the message across. Not sure they got it, though.
The colour of the river and the lake nearby was a bright turquoise blue, shimmering in the sunlight, a contrasting bright patch of light among browns, greens and greys.
The Gorges du Verdon is 700m deep. I had read very positive reviews from other visitors. But YL took one look at it and said lazily, "Oh, this is just like that gorge I hiked in Australia". So much for impressing him.
After the boat ride, we looked for a place for our picnic of leftover roast chicken sandwiches. We found a nice shady spot under some trees, but which seemed to have been staked out by some mobile food vendor. YL is very French now, so he said, "They are not here, aren't they? So too bad, this is our spot until they show up", and then threw open our picnic mat on the ground.
p/s Just look at that colour of the lake in the background...
We finished our picnic just before the mobile vendor showed up. But we have no idea what they sell. Do you?
We then drove around the top of the gorge
View of the river that we pedaled down, from the top of the gorge.
A gite is a French institution as far as French vacations go. They are self-catering accommodation with kitchen facilities. Many are found in the countryside, and many have shared facilities like swimming pools.
Dinner outdoors usually end prematurely due squealing kids not used to wasps and flies sharing their food with them
The chef is not really on vacation. He was still responsible for feeding us every now and then :)
2 comments:
Is Juju wearing his baby banz? :D
Awesome pictures! Such a beautiful gorge :)
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