(4) A visit to the north rim of France's Grand Canyon in Provence
ORIENTATION:
This map allows you to orient yourself with respect to the town of Moustiers Saint Marie, reached by toll road from Marseille with a good hour and a half on Departmental (D), (much slower!) roads, after leaving the tollway:
At Moustiers Ste. Marie the D 952 takes you to the north rim. To go to the south rim from Moustiers Ste. Marie, one must take the D 952 to the D 957 just a few miles from town, then after crossing a bridge taking the D 19 east, then the D 71 further east up the mountain. The D 19 and D 71 meet in an appealing small town, Aiguines, set on a steep mountain slope. (Alternatively, if you have the time or are just simply coming in from the east, one can come west on the D 952, then south on the D 955, or if you are coming from the south on the D 955, just go west on the D 71. That works too).
The D 955 connects the two at the east end (D 952 continues east, I did not). The D 955 comes into Comps sur Artuby and meets the D 71 there (coming from the south rim) and continues south. Eventually, after much twisting and turning, there is the city of Graguign which has a connection to the national auto-route system of freeways and toll-ways (see map), and high travel speeds allow you to reach either Hyeres or Toulon in just under an hour. From the eastern end of the canyon at the intersection with the D 955, it takes a good two and a half hours to reach Hyeres or Toulon if you don’t drive like a maniac.
END OF ORIENTATION
Just before entering Moustiers Ste. Marie there is a turn in the road that allows a nice view into the canyon from the west:
Moustiers Ste. Marie itself is a rather appealing town, obviously one with strong Medieval roots:
These west end and north rim photos are combined from my arrival day as well as from my day-before-departure day when I went to the south rim.
Nearing the north rim of the canyon, the pine forest was impressive:
At the end of the pines, overlooks allowed a peek at the Lac de Ste Croix below:
Leaving
As the canyon begins in earnest, the massive limestone walls extend higher and higher about the road:
Looking away from the wall and into the canyon allowed this spectacular view:
Looking down and west from here showed the bridge to the south rim:
Looking straight down from a little bit deeper into the canyon allowed one to see the river, the Luberon:
The above view was to the west, looking east also allowed a view of the river:
Scenes like these were repeated until one came to a twist in the road when it went over a divide into a tributary canyon with some farms and houses:
This is a wider view of that same canyon, the main canyon is behind the dividing ridge to the right:
Not long after this canyon is traversed, a highlight of the canyon appears: Point Sublime. Here is a scene from the approach to Point Sublime:
Soon after, a parking lot appears as well as some businesses catering to tourists (thank goodness, I was out of Diet Coke!). Walking away from the parking lot, I realized I was looking back at farms in the lower reaches of the tributary canyon I had just crossed:
I took a side trail, the longer way, to get to Point Sublime, one that led me over several low ridges and then through some woods to a trail overlooking the lower part of the area, but looking directly into the side canyon carved by the river here, making the point sublime. I will show photos in the sequence that gets to that point:
I tried to see all the way through this rather spectacular canyon to the south wall, but only partially succeeded:
The actual observation point allowed one to peek into this canyon a bit, but it also allowed other views of the river directly below:
Looking upstream showed some more serious mountains ahead:
Since it was getting late, I drove to the bridge and turned right to go south toward Hyeres. Here are some views from the bridge looking east from the bridge and then at the Luberon flowing west:
The south-bound road at the bridge the D 955, and it offers several nice sights even away from the canyon such as this one looking back at the south face of the south wall:
I liked this church, it sits on the hill overlooking the village of Comps sur Artuby:
I also liked this hilltop/side village and castle, the village of Chateaudouble, a nice Medieval layout of a chateau above and a village and church below, all above the valley to be more defensible.
Now it is too dark to continue taking pictures. Good night.
Links to other 'Septober' trip pages:
(5) A visit to the south rim of Provence's Grand Canyon.
(6) The ITER site near Cadarache.
(1) Crossing the Alps on the way from Munich (Munchen) to Marseille.
(2) Sunset on the Giens Peninsula where my first set of meetings took place.
(3) Sunrise on the Giens Peninsula. (I took no photos of the city where my second meeting took place, Toulon).
Universal links:
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