Easter in Languedoc: Pt 1

The first thing that happened when I arrived in France, was that the girl at the rental car counter complimented me on my french (for trying as much for goodness). That was really nice and got things started off on the right foot.

Day 1 started off really early because I had way more things listed than time to hit. Started off by stopping in Albi and visiting the cathedral. It really does look like a castle on the outside, but the inside is very ornate. The next stop was to the Millau Viaduc. This is the highest road bridge in the world and is about 300m above the valley at it's highest point. When you crest the hill and see this massive structure come into view, it is really impressive. It's a massive, but elegant structure and definitely worth a visit if you're in the area.


After that, it was off to the Chaos de Montpellier. This is a park that is filled with really unusal rock formations. The guidebook points out several formations and says they look like this or look like that. I can never see it, but I'm really glad I stopped off to see it. Walking through the forest and rocks, you really have a hard time believing that you are in France. To me, it looks a lot like some parts of NM. Every few feet there was some kind of fun angle to try to take pictures from. Definitely worth it.


Next stop was Aven Armand, one of the most famous caves in France. You start by taking a funicular way down underground. The cave is a big room (the size of Notre Dame according to the guide), filled with the densest collection of stalagmites that I've ever seen. There was a fair amount of color too, mostly hues of yellow. Oddly, there were hardly any stalactites.

Tying all these stops together, was a drive through the Tarn Gorge, which is a bit like the french equivalent of the Grand Canyon. It's a deep river valley with lots of picturesque villages, farms, bridges, and cliffs. The driving route around the Cevennes park through the gorges to the various sites is amazing. The views are awesome. The roads are awesome. Lots of narrow, twisty roads with plenty of switchbacks. The roads would climb up one valley and descend down into the next. It's really fun as long as you don't have big hangups about needing guardrails or things. You do need caution, because if you screw up, the only thing that will stop you is the valley floor several hundred feet below. The drive alone made this trip worthwhile. The only drawback is that there are very few places to pull off and take pictures.


Pics from the Cevennes area are here.