Vercors Regional Natural Park

Continuing on from Provence towards the Alps, we sidetracked a little to spend a couple nights in the Vercors Regional Natural Park, a beautiful massif above Grenoble, of green hillsides, rocky gorges with rivers, and limestone cliffs and caves. On the way, we stopped at this town below, Serre, for one of the best meals of our trip, a huge plate of lamb roast for Pat and a salmon and local products salad for me, cheese plate, wine and apricot tarts.

Continuing on from Provence towards the Alps, we sidetracked a little to spend a couple nights in the Vercors Regional Natural Park, a beautiful massif above Grenoble, of green hillsides, rocky gorges with rivers, and limestone cliffs and caves. On the way, we stopped at this town below, Serre, for one of the best meals of our trip, a huge plate of lamb roast for Pat and a salmon and local products salad for me, cheese plate, wine and apricot tarts.

Typical scenery in the Vercors region:

Below is the village of Pont-en-Royans, with its medieval (1500s) pleasantly pastel maisons suspendues hanging out over the Bourne river (Lucia Durand, you probably have painted them), where there is a nice trail we took to an overlook above the village.

Not in bad condition for maybe 500 years old. Hard to paint, too.

We ended up on a detour that took us for hours on one lane

roads high up in these mountains, and then it began to rain in addition. Even the English lady GPS kept telling us to turn around. We always referred to the GPS as “she.”

We came to a side road marked “Le Grotte de Chorance,” which we had been looking for. A nice ranger gave us an umbrella and we started off up a trail.

Soda straw stalactites. The ranger, when asked, told us that there has never been any vandalism, fortunately, given the centuries that it takes for these to form.

An underground river.

The “Farm of the Bearded Woods,” typical of the kind of family run small lodging we like to stay in. The “bearded woods”refers to a kind of pine or fir, the side branches of which hang down like moss.

The tree that the commune of Bois Barbu is named after (maybe)