My poor blog is so neglected. I'll catch up on it soon, though! I'm in Spain with my sister and her boyfriend until Saturday (That is, assuming the Spanish air traffic controllers' strike doesn't affect my travel plans. Keep your fingers crossed for me, please!), and then I fly to DC on MONDAY! I can't believe it's already been nearly nine months!
But going back to mid-April...When we were researching for our
trip, Becky and I had fallen in love with the idea of hiking and kayaking in the Verdon Gorges, a rugged part of Provence famous for dramatic cliffs plunging down into a surreal,
aquamarine-colored river. It was a little tricky figuring out how to get there without a car, but we finally found a bus that would take us from Nice to Castellane, one of the two gateway towns to the natural park!
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| Arriving in Castellane! |
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| Such a pretty town! |
We arrived in Castellane in the early evening, and, after
dropping off our bags in our room at the adorable Nouveau Hotel du Commerce, we walked over to the Tourist Office for assistance in
planning our day in the Verdon Gorges. It turned out that it was too early in the year to kayak since the nearby dam hadn't been released yet, but we decided to tackle the 14km Sentier Martel trail! The woman who helped us was wonderful: she made sure we had maps, contact information for a cab to get us to and from the hike, (there are shuttles in the summer, but it was too early in the season when we were there), and even a poster with the different birds we were likely to spot along the way!
Set for the hike the next day, we spent the rest of the evening enjoying Castellane. We relaxed in the comfortable lounge chairs on the hotel patio, went for a short walk up a path nearby to catch a sunset view over the mountains, and split a delicious pizza at the charming "La Main à la Pate."
On Thursday morning, we woke up early to give ourselves plenty of time to eat breakfast at the hotel before our cab came to pick us up at 8:30am. This place took continental breakfast to a whole new level! Homemade jams, juices, breads, yogurts, compotes, eggs (to order!), meat -- everything was delicious. We camel-ed up at breakfast, stopped to pick up some extra water and snacks at the little store across the street, and then left for the canyons. About 30 minutes later, we hopped out of our cab and were on our way!
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| Starting the hike! |
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| That water was COLD! |
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| The Brèche Imbert Staircase has 252 steps in 6 successive sets of stairs. Glad we were going down! |
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| Entering the Baou Tunnel, with its 650m of pitch blackness. Hooray for iPhone flashflights! |
It took us about 7 hours to complete the whole thing, and overall it was awesome! Great views, the rain held off, and it was very challenging without being
too difficult. The only downside was that Becky banged up her shin pretty badly on the trail. Although she was able to finish, her leg was hurting a lot by the end. After putting some ice on it at the hotel, we ended up going to get it checked out to make sure it was just a bruise and nothing more serious.
Getting directions from the hotel, we walked to the clinic/hospital, where the doctor on call came back in to work to take a look. Thankfully, she assured us that nothing was fractured and gave Becky a prescription to fill the next morning before we left for Lyon. While we were there, however, in an episode reminiscent of my first day of my anatomy internship at an orthopedist's office back in senior year of high school,
I actually came very close to passing out. (Apparently the sight of swollen, bruised legs makes me faint? And apparently, sugar cubes are the cure? The doctor gave me two of them and I was fine and on my way.)
It was pretty late by the time we left the clinic, but luckily we found a little restaurant that was still open. We had some delicious ratatouille crepes while talking to the man who owned the shop. From there we pretty much crashed into bed, exhausted but exhilarated from the day.
While the French have a reputation for being snooty, Castellane was a town full of the warmest, kindest, and most helpful people I've ever met. Everyone we came across, from the staff at our
hotel, to the waiters at
the restaurants we ate in, to the taxi drivers who picked us up and
dropped us off from our hike, to the staff at the tourist office, and
even to the doctor at the clinic, was so
nice. Staying in Castellane was like getting a big comforting hug from a good friend.
Needless to say, we were pretty sad to leave Castellane the next morning. And not just because we wanted to stay and try "aqua-randoing." But Lyon was waiting. Slogging through the harrowing, winding bus ride to Grenoble, a covoiturage from Grenoble to Lyon, and a poorly timed cloudburst when we got off the tram, we finally made it back to my apartment. We had been invited to Shabbat dinner with a family in Lyon, so we didn't have long to get organized before heading back out. Racing the clock before Shabbat came in, we went food shopping, prepped some lunch for Saturday, and made ourselves look presentable for dinner. After the initial rush, though, we enjoyed a slow weekend. Dinner Friday night was lovely, and we spent Saturday strolling through Vieux Lyon and relaxing in the Parc de la Tete D'Or.
Dinner at my place with Becky, Leila, and Maria Daniella that Saturday night was the perfect end to a fabulous week. Becky left crazy early Sunday morning to head to the airport, but it was just a temporary goodbye because I went to visit her in Israel just a little under 3 weeks later. More on that to come!
