Les Gorges du Verdon

The ravin formed byr the Verdon river is one of the most beutiful in France. Yesterday we finally managed to get ourselves there. The day was a bit grey and driving up into the Provencal Alpes it was even a little foggy, but once we got to the canyon itself the skies even cleared a little. And the landscape is spectacular! 



There are artifical lakes and dams at each end of the actual canyon, featuring the caracteristical glacier turqoise-green colour of the water, whereas the actual river is a muddy grey. The canyon is 25 kms long and up to 700 meters deep. 

Combined with the best of French “ruska”, the striking autumn colours, it is a most impressive place to visit.


In summer one can hire canoes and go paddling, there are numerous hiking trails, one can go cycling and riding. There are campsites and caravan sites everywhere – it is clear these are the kind of people who come here. Even now, on a somewhat rainy day towards the end of October, there were lots of other visitors around. 

Grey skies

It is raining, and the skies are grey.

A day of rain, and tomorrow it will turn sunny again. The wine harvest is almost done, and the olive harvest is waiting to start. But – this year it will apparently be very bad.

On one of our walks we went to see Johan Alexander, a Dane who grows olives on a farm above Cucuron. He told us his olive harvest last year was great, 8.000 tonnes of olives. And he sold well. By the end of July all his oil was gone. And this year he expects to get 400 kilograms of olives!! A lousy harvest in other words. Next to nothing. And the reason is the hot summer, especially the fact that the flowering did not succeed due to heath. So not even watering helped. It is a bit astonoshing to hear how big the difference can be between years. Tough to be dependent on just one crop.