The day we went to see the villages of Le Monastier, Goudet, and Arlempdes in the southern part of the Haute-Loire, we drove back north toward Le Puy and our gîte on little back roads. Along the way, looking at the map, Walt noticed that there was a waterfall along the way, near the village called Le Brignon (pop. 600). We decided to stop and see if we could get a photo of it.
The photo above shows what the countryside around Le Brignon looks like. A small river called la Beaume cuts a fairly deep valley near the village as it flows northeast and joins up with the Loire river. La Beaume is just six miles long, while the Loire is 600 miles long.
Leaving Le Brignon, we came to a turn-out where we could park the car. We were on high ground, and we weren't sure we wanted to walk all the way down to river level at the bottom of the waterfall, la cascade de la Beaume, which is 27 meters (about 90 feet) high. We walked part way down a path and got the view you see above.
We thought the sign above was funny. If you just read the English translation of the French warning, you might get the idea that your valuables are out walking around, clambering to get into your vehicle.
The headwaters of the Loire are somewhere off in the distance in this photo. We didn't drive quite that far south.
Ha! Love that translation :) Such nice views when traveling the back roads, eh? Especially with a Michelin Guide to point out where to stop and look.
ReplyDeleteLa cascade de la Beaume made me think of a lovely poem by Théophile Gautier, in Émaux et Camées, called La Source. In the poem, Loire could be substituted for lac.
ReplyDeleteFor French-loving English readers of this marvelous blog [publicité non payée! lol], a fleuve, in French, is a river, however short or long, that empties directly into the ocean, or any sea for that matter, like the Volga and Jordan rivers. In Southern California, the New River and the Alamo River would be considered fleuves because they both empty into the Salton Sea!
Even Google Translate had a [much] better translation:
ReplyDeleteDo not leave valuables in your vehicle
Lovely countryside.
ReplyDeleteAfter your birdsongs of yesterday, I paid special attention today. Could identify Carolina wren and cardinal, and there's an owl down the street who is very vocal at night, ending with a drawn-out "WooWoooooo."
I will let all the valuables that want to hurl themselves into my car do so.
ReplyDeleteLOL, D.
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