We get up at six. The day starts with a handful of surprises. Waiter asks the number of our room several times, we did not manage to find the cutlery. When we select the table with a thundering sound the large chunk of the ceiling falls down on the nearby table. The waiter does not loose his temper though. We neither. May be the breakfast is shorter as it might be if the ceiling was still in it’s place 😉 Having finished with the breakfast we pack our baggage and move on to our first destination – Mont Aigual. Mont Aigoual ir the highest mountain (about 1500m) in the region. On the top there is an observatory. As we jump out of the car we notice the chilling wind. Still after the warm weather of Monpellier we did not bother to put on a warn clothes. That’s a pity – we get cold and are back soon.
Next we drive forward to explore the subterranean river Bramabiau. There we find ourselves in between everything for tourists – restaurant and souvenir shop. There are only several guided tours per day – the next one is scheduled after an hour. We used to time to have a lunch. When done with the lunch we walk around km to where the guided tour must start. The guide suggests raincoats and they are of use indeed because water comes down on our heads frequently while we are in the cave. We are guided through the cave that follows the river. The cave is illuminated and we can enjoy the cliffs of different colors, stalactites, something that is presented to us as dinosaurs footprint and the line in the cliffs, that shows where the seabed was some millions of years before.
The next place to experience is called Montpellier le Viex. One can see a number of cliffs of amazing forms. The weird forms have been designed by the wind. One can see here the cliffs like crocodile, camel etc.
We decide to look at the Millau bridge (Viaduc Millau) that is some 20 km away. The Millau bridge is constructed recently (opened at 14th December 2004) and is the highest bridge in Europe. It spans the Tarn valley near the town of Millau. The bridge has seven pylons, tallest of them (up to the masts summit) is 343m high which makes it taller than the Eiffel Tower. We drive in the parking place nearby one of the pylons. This is large parking place dedicated for tourists that get there to gaze at the bridge from below.
After we have enough of the bridge sights we drive to Gorge du Tarn (canyon of the river Tarn). The canyon is about 90km long, our plans are to experience some 30km of the lower end.
Our hotel (Les Detroits) stands near the river some 5km from the Malene village. The hotel is built on a narrow chunk of land taken away from the mountains.