Baume les Messieurs

Another great, long walk this week - 15km. Not as sunny as last week, as you can see from the pictures, but magnificent scenery again. I've included a screen shot from Google Earth to show the layout. (Guess I should be able to link it, any ideas?) If you're interested enough, open Google Earth and search for Baume les Messieurs. If you zoom in around the village and the southern end of the gorge, some little red squares should appear which are links to panoramic photos.

After parking beside the Abbey, we climbed up the escarpment. Carol's guide book classed the walk as difficult and described the climb as a ladder, so I was a little apprehensive. Fortunately, it wasn't as bad as we'd feared and we were soon on the top, looking down at the tiny houses and cars. We walked all along the western edge, looped through a village or two and then came back down the southern end of the gorge, via the waterfall.

The boys had less stamina than us girls, so David and Bob stayed in the car while Carol, Jacquie and I went to explore the Abbey. It was undergoing some major renovation - the floor of the chancel had been lifted and an archaelogical dig was in progress. They had uncovered some 13th century burials and what they thought might be the remains of a Carolingian building under the Apse. A bit morbid, I know, but we took a few photos of the skeletons.