Moustiers Ste. Marie! (Gorges du Verdon): Travel Marathon through France: April 2023
Gorges du Verdon has been on my bucket list for a long time…. perhaps even since the age of six when I was living in Brue-Auriac! Because, well, it’s the Gorges du Verdon!!
I must admit, I failed to properly plan for this day because we drove around a lot, not really not knowing where we were going. I blame my lack of internet and bad GPS in the Peugeot. I’m usually better prepared. Regardless, we had a nice drive along the winding road through the Gorges (when I say “we” I mean Tessa and Steve, and when I say “nice” I exaggerate because it wasn’t that nice for me as I was the one driving due to the fact that we neglected to add Steve as a driver on the rental, and I really had to focus on the road without distraction due to the winding turns and elevation).
The GPS address I entered took us away from the action so we decided to turn around after a good thirty minute drive, and thankfully, on the way back we landed upon this picture perfect spot so in the end it was all worth it.
After enjoying the views from this beautiful lookout, we decided to head into Moustiers Ste. Marie village, a great decision!! This small village isn’t called the most beautiful village in France for nothing!! And it has a lot of history, with humans taking refuge in the surrounding caves as early as 30,000 BC.
We only spent a few hours there, but I would definitely recommend making a day of it so that you have enough time to explore the entire village, and make it up to the chapel of Notre-Dame de Bauvoir (which we unfortunately did not have time to visit). The chapel was built in the 12th on the remains of a Marian temple, which was erected sometime in the 5th century . It takes about 20 minutes to climb the cliff and get to the chapel.
We did climb the cliff on the other side of the village, never quite making it to the top because I don’t do very well rock climbing tall heights. But I did make it high enough to get some nice views of the village.
We enjoyed lunch at one of the 30+ restaurants in the village. We were served some very very good 3 euro French wine. It was amazing!
After lunch, we enjoyed a stroll through this beautiful village.
All in all, we had a great time exploring the Gorges du Verdon area, even without a great plan, and there is definitely more to do and see in this part of beautiful France.
