World Heritage Site and a huge hole in the ground

We have finally gotten ourselves adjusted to French time, up at 7:00 , quick coffee and baguette, then walked about 1.7 miles into our village, Montferrier, right past the boulangerie ordinaire to the boulangerie extraordinaire, then another 1.7 more miles home (but who's counting) to clean up for our day's adventure exploring France Sud.

This time we had the requisite route to find St. Guilhem-le-desert, which had eluded us and GPS Gertie a few days ago. The village was established about 800AD by one of Charlemagne's deputies who apparently became a saint and had the village named for him. The story has it that he brought back three (3) pieces of the actual cross on which Jesus was crucified, an Abbey was built to house them appropriately, thus turning the humble village into a mecca for pilgrims, which not unlike today's tourists kept the village thriving. We visited the Abbey,

with an unadorned high vaulted chapel, quite a feat in the 11C,

and a dark underfloor 9th C crypt (Paul used his new smart android to light his way), but we saw no signs of the purported cross portions. It was 33C (91.4 F), yet we walked down and back up the steep village streets, but still no mention of the alleged cross pieces, which Danice guessed were on loan to another deserving village, or perhaps contemporary carbon dating had debunked the myth. Subsequent wiki research, though, leads us to believe they are in the Museum of the Abbey, which we never found.

It is a lovely village; we had a pleasant lunch under a huge tree planted in 1855 that shaded a large Place,

and the shops displayed artisan ceramics, glass and jewelry rather than the t-shirts and tourist trinkets found in many once charming European towns.

It was just past 3PM and we needed a drive in our air conditioned Mini to cool down. We had time to head further afield to visit the Cirque de Navacelles, a long winding drive up up up to a big plateau (the picture, of course, cannot do it justice)

then a sudden, vast, breathtaking hole in the earth formed by erosion of a deep river channel through the base of the valley, creating an incised meander which eventually broke through creating a cut-off, an oxbow lake which later dried up. We couldnt capture it all from the road, so here's a link to some good aerial photos: http://www.google.com/search?aq=1&oq=cirque+de+nava&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=cirque+de+navacelles+photos

It would have been enough to look down from the top, but the road crested the edge and began its descent into the steep carved granite valley. Danice insisted that this was not necessary, but Paul was making no U-turns on this steep road, so Danice worked on not imagining brake failure, running out of gas (1/4 tank), or driving unknown mountain roads home after dark. The valley did prove rewarding; there was a beautiful rocky waterfall, green meadows, intoxicating honeysuckle aroma, and a small village. We cant imagine how the population came and went before the road... it would be a strong current to row upstream and a heck of a walk to civilization. Paul suggests they were really into local food and wines.

When we asked Gertie for "Home", she took us back the way we had come instead of the treacherous road out the other side Danice had feared, and we arrived 1 1/2 hrs later with gas to spare. Such an adventurous spirit in an air conditioned Mini has never before been seen.