The Verdon has cut a canyon nearly seven hundred metres deep into the limestone of upper Provence — the grandest gorge in Europe, and the strangest colour. The river runs an unreal green-turquoise from the glacial melt and the minerals in the rock, far enough below the rim that from the road it looks painted on.
I. The road along the rim
Two roads follow the gorge. On the north side the Route des Crêtes loops out of La Palud-sur-Verdon past a string of belvederes, each one a sheer drop onto the river; on the south, the Corniche Sublime runs the other lip. Drive them slowly, stop often, and watch for the vultures — griffon vultures, reintroduced here, ride the thermals out of the canyon on most clear days.
“The river is the colour nothing natural should be, and it is entirely natural.”
II. The lake of Sainte-Croix
Where the gorge opens, the river feeds the Lac de Sainte-Croix, a vast glass-green reservoir held behind a dam. At the bridge below Galetas you can take a pedalo or a kayak up into the mouth of the canyon itself — the cliffs closing overhead, the water cold and clear, swimmers turning back where the current quickens.
III. Moustiers, hung with its star
At the western gate of the gorge, Moustiers-Sainte-Marie spills down a cleft in the cliff, a gold star strung on a chain between the two rock walls above it — a vow, the story goes, kept for centuries. One of the Plus Beaux Villages de France, it has made fine faïence pottery since the seventeenth century, and the workshops are still open along its steep lanes.
