Millau Viaduct

The Big Day Out

Our day started with a journey to the millau viaduct. We headed off to find it, even though its 2,450 meters in length and 32 meters wide. It's the tallest bridge in the world. One wrong turn and you could miss it.

We didn't have enough diesel to get there, so took a detour and headed for a town called st.Affrique. So of course that took us of course. We headed back on the road we thought would take us to the starting point of the bridge, our plan was to pay the payge and drive the whole 2 ½ k, and then back. But the best laid plans always have a habit of going slightly wrong. And we ended underneath it. This was actually amazing and better than being on top, you got a better sense of the grand size of it. The size of the bridge is breathtaking. You just can't imagine how it got from a drawing to being built. If you really wanted to you can put the giant pyramid of Egypt underneath it. The tourist office was free, that was a bonus, and the drawings of just how big it was, number two tower is slightly bigger than the Eiffel tower. We were impressed with it and it was worth the journey to get there. It's guaranteed to last for 120 ans. Unlike the dolmens they had a guarantee of thousands of years. I guess that's modern materials for you.

Dolmen del Tiergues

A Dolmen, yes another one. After our attempts of trying to find a least 6 in Spain. And failed. The dolmen has always remained elusive until now travelling up the windy road to the village of Tiergues. And there it was, just on the side of the road. A lovely dolmen. Our first glimpse of the megalithic portal. Was a good one too. They use it for postcards of the area. It t has two good long side slabs. On top is the capstone, watch out for the top, it overhangs more than you think, and if you jump up to quickly after posing for a photo you can bump your head. If this thing is between 3000 - 4000 years old, why do people want to use it for a toilet?

Roquefort.

King of the Cheeses.

Part of our journey was to visit Roquefort. Home of the king of cheese.

Legend has it that the cheese was discovered when a youth, eating his lunch of bread and ewes' milk cheese, saw a beautiful girl in the distance. Abandoning his meal in a nearby cave, he ran to meet her. When he returned a few months later, the mold had transformed his plain cheese into Roquefort.

Our intention was not to go into the caves because the entrance fee was 5 Euros each, but just to say we had been there. On the way there were plenty of advertising boards, for a butterfly cave (in French of course Papillon) but these caves where advertised as free. So we get to Roquefort, parked up. There wasn't much enthusiasm from Dave about visiting the caves to see some butterflies so off we went. Not even stopping for coffee.

it wasn't until we were talking around the dinner table of our day out, that Louise said the papillon caves, was a brand of Roquefort cheese, and did I not wonder about butterflies living in caves.!!!!!. Dave said 'well Dawn was very convincing, with her French translation, I believed her'. Print page

Company producing the "Papillon" Roquefort cheese respecting traditions as required by the "appellation d'origine" and the ancestral customs.

The cirques de Navecelles.

This was a surprising sight to see, I didn't realise it was going to be so vast... Just standing at the view point, the gorge was immense. You could have been anywhere in the world, with this prehistoric view. It took a few minutes to spot what we had come to see.

The cirque.

The river Vis had hollowed a deep channel through the base of the valley, which eventually created a loop. In time the river had eroded the rock and cut off the neck of the loop. This left what was called an oxbow lake, a bit like the one near home, only bigger. Lol. The lake dried up leaving silt and peat. This made this part of the land arable, the only part for many miles around.

Dave enjoyed the roads around here; they are not very well maintained and only wide enough for one car. The road winds down into the valley and the road is clinging to the sheer cliff face. They say that only the brave will drive back up it. So we didn't. And came the other way.

Today; Friday, July 27, 2012

Got up early, which is a feat in itself. We are planning to move on on Sunday to a place called 'tourettes'. So we need to do a bit of research to see what's happening there. It's a bit sad to be leaving here, it's been great, and we have seen and done so many things we have never done before. I would recommend a visit to this part of France as there is so much to see and do