Recreation day. Driving to Melezet valley to experience Cascade de la Pis waterfall and Lac Sainte-Anne.
The waterfall is located near Ceillac – the largest village of the valley. One has to drive a couple of km to Le Pied du Melezet. The waterfall is next to the parking place. The water falls from a gap in a rock – one can imagine somebody has split the rock with a knife and then pushed the sides slightly apart. The viewpoint is some hundred meters from the waterfall – one has to climb uphill by the stream to get closer. Full service is there though – a rainbow, a shower and a roar 🙂 .
Next we drive some 3-4km further to the end of road and stop in Fond de Chaurionde parking lot. A number of cars already there – some people have a picnic while others walk to the lake Saint-Anne or further.
The path takes us gradually uphill through a forest (larches as you might guess). The lake is in a dip thus it appears at our sight only when we are there. First we notice a cross then a little chapel, then the lake.
The lake has green-blue color, the colors change all the way with the changes of the sun light. The sun shines right over the rock tops. We proceed uphill by the lake to take some shots and to have a rest. We are not alone – other hikers are everywhere around the lake.
We watch how the clouds accumulate over the hill tops. Looks like some of them might carry a rain 🙂 . We get some rain drop while descending. Queyras has 300 sunny days per year – today perhaps is one of them 🙂 .
The day ends with a visit to Fort Queyras. The fortress is at the top of a steep hill – we drive by it almost every day. The thick walls and towers on the top of the rock walls looks like exaggeration.
The fortress is rather small inside, nevertheless there is a lot to explore as the itinerary goes in rounds in several stores. The steep stone made staircases of 70 steps featuring exits here and there to a platforms surrounded by a walls are rather impressive. The gards of fortress could shoot at the enemies from places at number of heights.