From Salagou, we drove out to the Cirque de Moureze. We had been here many years ago, and although the parking had gone up in price by one euro (so a punitive € 3 for the day) not much else had changed.
The Cirque is one of the most stunning landscapes I’ve been in, somewhat ressembling Goreme in Turkey, but with vivid green everywhere from the pine trees. There are huge dolomitic rocks that tower above you and are sculpted into weird shapes by millennia of the blustery winds we’ve been experiencing locally, the Terral and Mistral. The pathway is very narrow and winding, but there is a great system of coloured bars painted on trees to outline the various paths to follow.
We took the easiest, marked yellow, which was supposed to be one hour but in fact took more than double that.
We set off wearing sandals and Skechers, no hat, and we just had a single flask of water, but we had expected a fairly easy walk, remembering that we had done this with the kids many years ago, when they were aged six and nine years old.
The journey out was up steep uneven stones that were mostly fairly easy to get over, although quite exhausting. Returning was even more challenging, a steep rocky descent and very easy to slip, especially wearing sandals. We met a couple on the way back and took their photo, and they told us there were several routes back but none of them easy! They were both elderly but nimble-looking in the way that French people often are, and they offered to help us get through the steeper descents on the way down. We said Thanks but No Thanks!
It was also extremely hot, so by the time we got to the end we were both fairly tired, and the sirop de framboises and Coca Cola tasted unbelievably nice. This was as at the same small bar that we had ended up in years ago with the kids, so it felt quite nostalgic. A small raku pottery nearby the café.
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