Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 10th, 11th, and 12th September

The first Europeans to see the Grand Canyon in North America were Spaniards in 1540, and it was not until 1869 that John Wesley Powell led an expedition through the canyon. Thirty-one years later, in 1905 when the Eiffel Tower was beginning to show its age, Europe’s own Grand Canyon was discovered, only 60 miles from Marseille, France’s second largest city. Until then the Verdon Gorge was known only to a few local woodcutters who used to descend into the ravine on ropes to collect boxwood stumps to carve into the cochonnet that were used the length and breadth of France in the national sport of pétanque. Somehow the second largest gorge in the world remained hidden in plain sight until the age of the motor car!

Édouard Martel was the chap who literally ‘put it on the map’. He was tasked by the Ministry of Agriculture to see if the river Verdon could be tamed and used to irrigate the local fields and supply drinking water to the fast-growing cities of Toulon and Marseilles. In doing so they managed to travel the 13 miles through the gorge, losing two of their boats in the process. Imagine, a 20th century European country, a major player on the world stage not knowing that it possessed a 13 mile long, 700m deep ravine?

Today the Verdon Gorge is a major tourist attraction. In 1975 most of it was flooded as part of a hydroelectric scheme that also created the Saint-Croix Lake between the Grand Gorge and the Lower Gorge. At the mouth of the lower gorge another lake developed, by the little village of Quinson. There is not much to Quinson, it has two bars, a couple of shops, a tabac, an olde worlde village centre where people actually live, oh, and an enormous museum dedicated to France’s prehistoric history! Though we were here a couple of nights we couldn’t find time to visit the museum, though we did explore its large garden which showed the development of homes from basic branch shelters from 40,000 years ago to the thatched wattle and daub houses the Gauls were living in when the Romans arrived.

Pedalo or electric motorboat, which would you choose to explore a gorge? If it had been a blisteringly hot day and not today with a howling a gale, we may have been tempted to take the pedalo but instead we opted to take the motorboat, and very wise it proved to be as we passed plenty of hardy pedallers who couldn’t cope with the wind on the nose. We sailed serenely up the river absolutely gobsmacked (Wendy hates that word) by the awesome surroundings. In the lower gorge the cliffs are only 200metres high but very steep and pockmarked with caves and with trees clinging on for dear life. Here is a cave with the smoke stains from prehistoric fireplaces, there is the cave that was the hideout of the bandit Gaspard de Besse, and that cave is barred because it is the roost of some rare bats.

The lower gorge also has a footpath through it. This was carved out of the rock to service the channel that we dug in the 19th century to provide drinking water to Aix-en-Provence. It is pretty treacherous in places and not for those who don’t like heights.

It was an early start on Thursday because we want to get to the Pont du Galetas, the bridge at the mouth of the Grand Gorge, while there is still space in the motorhome car park. It is chilly this morning, I needed three layers to walk to the tabac for bread, and now the wind is strengthening again and it is feeling colder still so the pedalos are definitely out of the equation – it will be another motorboat trip.

The Grand Gorge is the one that had lain undiscovered for so long and it is very deep. The cliffs were towering over us. Who knows if they were the 700-metre-high ones? They were probably the steepest cliffs I have ever seen. Because this gorge is so inhospitable there wasn’t that much to see apart from cliffs, so it was not as interesting as the lower gorge. It is supposed to be the home of chamois and wild boar, but they must have been called away.

After a warming hot chocolate, we went for a hike around the lake St Croix and wished it a happy birthday as it was two days short of its 50th birthday. It is claimed to be the 3rd largest lake in France and is 11 miles from end to end. There weren’t many people about, but it was clear from the carparks and mothballed water sport equipment hire places that it is a very popular destination in the high season.

Three days in the Verdon Gorges proved that they are gorgeous! – I’ve been desperate to get that pun in. They really are essential on your bucket list and Quinson is a great base to see them from. It is understated but charming nevertheless and it has won my heart from all the places we’ve been to so far. I could see me living here, if it weren’t for Brexit and I can’t speak French!