Les Mées

I took off from Castellane and drove 74.1 km west to a Les Mées. Les Mees is found in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence in the Provence - Cote d'Azur region of France. On my way into village I stopped at the Les Mées solar farm, it is the largest solar farm in France spread across 36 acres. It was quite a sight to see, so many solar panals rolling across the hills.

                                             

  My first sight I had to visit in Les Mees had to be Les Penitents Des Mées, this is the whole reason why I choose to come to the villiage. Les Penitents des Mees is a row of columnar rocks which stretch across 2 kilometres and rise to 100 metres high these rock formations are surrounded by a lush green landscape. The colmnar rocks are said to be a procession of banished monks who were turned to stone by Saint Donat. Standing infront of these massive rocks was amazing they were beautiful.

    
                     
        

 Afrer checking out Les Penitents Des Mées, I decided to walk though the villiage and see what I could find. The town was awesome I strolled down alley ways made completely of stone from the buildings, to the streets it was incredible seeing such craftmanship.

                                         



 http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g758245-Les_Mees

http://www.hickerphoto.com/picture/les-mees-rock-formations-alpes-de-haute-provence-france-22947.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/picture/2011/may/26/solar-photovoltaic-france

Castellane

      Castellane France is my next stop on my French vacation. I got in my rental car and travelled north on D955 about 59km to reach the village, it is tucked down in the steep Grand Canyon du Verdon. When I reached Castellane I had to stop at this beautiful old stone bridge over a little river with large mountains behind it.

        For the day of fun I decided to go rock climbing there are plenty of rocks to climb in the steep canyons of the Grand Canyon du Verdon. It was so exhilarating climbing up the huge rock face, and then pulling myself on a rope across a small canyon that the river runs through it was an awesome experience.

                                           
                    

         After my day of rock climbing I was starving so I thought I would stop and grab a slice of pizza at a local pizzeria. I sat out side along the cobble stone streets. The pizza was delicious it was defiantly different from our American pizza.

                                             

              When I finished eating I thought I would hit up a local lavender field and pick a bundle of fresh lavender for my hotel room. The fields were gorgeous and smelled heavenly, when I first stepped onto the field there where bees all over so I was a little nervous but the bees didn't sting at all they were intoxicated by the smell of lavender.


                                          




http://www.castellane.org/
http://www.beyond.fr/villages/castellane-provence-france.html

Draguignan

    For my next journey in France I jumped on D562 and traveled about 68km which took a little over an hour to reach the city Draguignan. Draguignan which comes from Latin meaning dragon, the city was named dragon due to a legend people passing though were scared by a dragon that lived in the marshes around the city.

 

     The first thing I noticed when reaching Draguignan was a large 17^th century clock tower that sat upon a hill, I knew I had to visit  the clock tower once I was all settled in to my B&B Le Mas des Selves.     

                                                                                                                                               

   After checking into my B&B I strolled down the streets, and alleys they were so picturesque.  The buildings were tall and built very close together with shutters on the entire window. Before I knew it I had arrived at the Tour de l'Horloge (clocktower). The clock tower is 17^th century and was rebuilt in 1662 after a amnesty granted to the city by King Louis XIV.

 

 

                                                                     

When I finished with  my trip to the tower I realized I was starving so I asked the locals where a great place to eat was, and I was told to try Lou Galoubet. Lou Galoubet was a great choice it had awesome local flavor, I ordered the lobster risotto. For desert I had to try their famous molten chocolate cake, and it was delicious, defiantly a must when visiting the city.

 

After lunch I thought I would hit  one more site the Dolmen pèira de la fada (the fairy stone) before heading back to rest. The dolmen is huge stones, built into a monument. It’s amazing how they were able to move such large stones without heavy equipment.  Legend about this dolmen talks about a fairy living under the monument.  

 

 

http://www.map-france.com/Draguignan-83300

http://www.informationfrance.com/draguignan.php

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g668760-d1563952-Reviews-Lou_Galoubet-Draguignan_Var_Provence.html