We went for a drive today from Castellane to Lac Ste Croix. This took us through the Gorge du Verdon, along a special "scenic" route that gave quite breathtaking views along the way (the Route des Cresses). There will be many pictures to follow when I eventually get around to processing them!

At the end of the journey, the road gives a stunning view out over Lac Ste Croix. The road at this point is above the bridge you can see in the picture here, perilously clinging to the side of the mountain. Then you sweep down towards the lake, eventaully crossing the bridge in the picture.

We stopped a little further on, where we ate then rented a four-man canoe. We paddled under the bridge and into the gorge itself for a little way before turning round and coming back to the lake.

The lake itself is man-made, and is used for hydro-electric generation.

It appears that "jumping off things and into the water" is a national sport here. By "things" I mean things like "high-up ledges in the rock face" or "the road bridge". At first we thought we were seeing a suicide attempt when someone jumped off the road bridge!

Photographic note: the above photo was taken with a polarising filter, and ACR was set to "Camera Landscape". I used lens corrections, some clarify, then cropped, resized and sharpened. There was no colour manipulation at all!