Provence Blog by ProvenceBeyond

Verne Chartreuse (monastery) near St-Tropez

The Chartreuse de la Verne is a beautiful, large monastery isolated in the wooded hills of the Maures mountains, only about 20 km west of Saint-Tropez. The original Chartreuse was founded here in the 12th century. The current buildings are from the 17th-18th centuries.

Saint Maurice-Navacelles village, Hérault

We've added the Hérault village of St-Maurice-Navacelles to Beyond. Located on the Larzac Plateau in the upper Languedoc-Roussillon region, this small village is very close to the Navacelles Cirque and numerous dolmens and menhirs.

Dolmen of Prunarede in the Languedoc-Roussillon

We've added a page for the Prunarede Dolmen, a Neolithic burial site in the Hérault department, near the Cirque de Navacelles and the village of La Vacquerie-et-St-Martin-de-Castries.

We've also put online in Beyond a page describing Dolmens. 

La Vacquerie-et-St-Martin-de-Castries

This little village with the big name is in a remote area of the Larzac plateau of the upper Languedoc-Roussillon region. Located northwest of Montpellier and east of Lodeve, in the Hérault department, the village is a good place for visiting ancient stone dolmens, menhirs and other Neolithic artifacts. 

The long name is because two previous villages were combined together – 180 years ago.

Venanson Village Hike, Vésubie Valley, Mercantour

 We had a good hike this Monday, a nice 6-hour loop through the forests by the village of Venanson. Located in the upper Vésubie  valley, beside the small town of St-Martin-Vésubie, Venanson is perched dramatically on a high, narrow mountain ridge.

Our hike begins and ends at Venanson village, with the nearest part across valley fields and past small hamlets. The main part of the hike, though, is through deep forests along the mountainside. The day was half sunny and half cloudy, but we only saw the sun as it filtered down through the trees.

We've presented the hike, with a bunch of photos, on the Venanson Hike page. During the hike, this "attack" cat (photo) stalked us and repeatedly did feint attacks.

Also new is the text and the photos on our Venanson Village page.

Lac de Trecolpas - Mercantour Mountain Lakes

 We've added photos for the Lac de Trecolpas to our Mercantour Mountain Lakes page. The pretty Trecolpas lake sits at 2150 m altitude, near the Refuge de Courgorde, northeast of Saint Martin-Vésubie and northeast of the Boréon lake and vacherie in the Mercantour National Park.

From the Vacherie de Boréon, we hiked up to the Refuge de Courgorde; under 1-1/2 hours at a leisurely photo-taking pace. The Refuge is 400 m higher than the starting point, but our altimeter records over 500 m of total upward climbing.

After a nostalgic tour of the Courgorde Refuge area (where we've hiked and overnighted for many, many years), we headed southeast and south on a trail that traverses around the side of the mountain, mostly through forests. Traveling slowly, knowing we're likely to see chamois here if we're careful, we took 40 minutes to reach the Lac de Trecolpas.

The slow moving paid off, with the sighting of four chamois (see our recent, previous blog).

Chamois in the Mercantour - Great Hiking

 Two days of early-Autumn hiking in the Mercantour - no crowds, great scenery, sore legs. On today's hike, from the Vacherie de Boréon (Boreon Dairy) north of Saint Martin-Vésubie, up to the Refuge de Courgourde (a mountain refuge station). Then traversing around the mountain to the Lac de Trecolpas, where we surprised four chamois. The photos here are the first two chamois, coming down the mountainside in front of us, a few minutes apart.

 We later saw a mother with youngster crossing along the base of the cliffs high above us. We got a few photos, but at a far greater distance than these two.

Lac Scluos Chamois - Reprise

 Our Chamois photos during the 15 July 2010 hike to Lac Scluos came about from a combination of luck and skill.

We had hiked for 3 hours, up from the Salese parking to the Col the Salese and then northwest up through the forest to the Tavels area. The last two hours we hiked slowly, looking constantly for chamois in the trees above or below the trail (where we've seen them in the past). Then a steep hike up to the Lac Tavels and a good long look-around there, before heading back down that mountain and retracing our previous trail southeast.

From the main trail we went up the side of the hill, very, very steeply, without any trail, to find the Lac Scluos. We spent a good hour wandering the pair of lakes, photographing and lunching. Finally satisfied that we had seen all there was, we headed out across the plateau to find a route back down.

Walking across an open, sunlit field I saw the chamois coming slowly out of the trees towards me. Although I was in a field in full sunlight I saw it first (I'm more observant than a wild chamois?). I froze. It dropped its head to feed. I sank down slowly, then lay prone, just another boulder in the field.

I propped up the camera and started shooting while the chamois wandered and grazed, trying to ignore scratchy dry throat, blazing sun and bothersome flies.

When the chamois disappeared back into the trees I got up and stalked it. After some searching, I found it again further into the woods. I crawled, then slowly stood up beside a pair of 2-meter high trees. Standing as just another tree, I shot more photos. And then a second chamois arrived. I photographed them both for several minutes, but they were mostly in the shadows and fairly far for my medium-telephoto camera.

When the pair of chamois moved completely back into the woods, I headed back down the mountain and continued my hike back to the Col de Salese.

Lac Scluos Chamois

Lac Scluos chamois. Not crowded at the lake, but we weren't completely alone.

July 15th Lac Scluos

Part-2 of our July-15th hike was to a pair of very secluded mountain-forest lakes. The Lac Scluos is up through a very, very steep forested mountainside. It's not far (only a half hour of strenuous climbing) but it's not marked at all and there's no trail to follow. It's lovely at the top, and not at all crowded!