Gavarnie, France

Mom and I jettisoned ourselves out of the house at 8am and drove a little over 2 hours down to Gavarnie to check out the tallest water fall in Europe. The falls are about an hour and a half hike out of the town of Gavarnie, on the edge of Le Parc National de Pyrennes.

The Grand Cascade topples over 400 meters from the Cirque de Gavarnie which is almost 10,000 feet wide at the top. There are several other waterfalls that gracefully drop into the Cirque de Gavarnie and Gavarnie Falls is the largest, tallest and most famous of these. Apparently it is a favorite spot of the ice climbing crazies too!

We hiked up to the falls and then back a little to the inn where we enjoyed the view and a beer. I watched several over night hikers ascend up into the cirque and dreamed of crossing one of the Haute Routes myself someday.

On the way back to Montgaillard we decided to stop at Lourdes and go in search of the "healing" waters. We found the cathedral (?) of St. Bernadette (lots of gold and marble and general gaudiness) and the temple of Joan of Arc. We did eventually find the grotto with the healing waters (now conveniently piped into a drinking fountain type system) and drank our fill as we watched the people on their pilgrimage. We didn't get to see the miracle of the preserved St. Bernadette, but we did get to have dinner on the river, so it wasn't a total loss.