On Saturday, we had an all day excursion to Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, a commune in the South of France. Our first stop was le Pont du Diable (Devil's Bridge), although I didn't like the name I did love the view. It was breath-taking!
After visiting le Pont du Diable, we entered into the village. I fell in love at first site, the town was so precious and beautiful! It's known as one of the most beautiful villages in France and I could see why. The medieval village is very small and is built around the Abbey of Gellone.
The streets were like small alleyways and the windows were decorated with pots of flowers. It was like it was straight out of a movie. The village has kept its medieval and historic state.
La Cardabelle as shown above was on many doors throughout the village. It is a charm for good luck and to keep bad spirits away, I thought it was very interesting.
I loved exploring this village. Here I am in a garden of a catholic church.
Grotte de Clamouse
After some time in the village we went to our last stop of the day...the cave! When I heard that we would be visiting a cave I was very excited and what I saw was beyond my expectations. The cave was huge with beautiful, it was like entering a underground world. Looking at the stalactite felt like going back in history because they took thousands and thousands of years to form. Before we entered, we watched a video which explained how the cave was created and how the stalactites form as water rich in calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and carbon dioxide (CO2) create calcium bicarbonate, once this comes in contact with the air there is a reversed reaction and CaCO3 (s) is formed....otherwise known as limestone.
It is so amazing!
I was also very interested in the animals that live in these caves because I learned about this in my biology class. Due to natural selection, animals will lose traits that they don't use...do you notice anything different about these fish?
They don't have eyes! Living in the dark environment means that eyes were unnecessary, they were therefore lost to save energy.
The cave was truly magnificent! It is a example of how amazing Mother Nature is.
If you are interested in seeing beautiful sites, medieval history, and exploring caves, then I recommend Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert as a place to visit. It makes up for it's small size with it's amazing character.
As always I hope you enjoyed the read, I am really enjoying sharing this experience with everyone.
xoxo,
Kye