Page 61 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - France

Great Gorges
France is scored with stunning gorges and
canyons. The Gorges du Verdon are the deepest
and perhaps the most spectacular: the
intensely green river carves a narrow canyon
through pale limestone cliffs. The Gorges du
Tarn are just as impressive, its looming cliffs
studded with tiny
stone villages to
explore. Both are A kayaker tackling the
fantastic areas for narrow waters of the
outdoor activities. Gorges du Verdon

MONET'S STUDY OF
LIGHT IN ROUEN
In the 1890s, Claude
Monet made almost 30
paintings of Rouen’s
cathedral, several of
which can be seen in
the Musée d’Orsay
(p136). He studied the
effects of changing light
on the west façade,
putting colour before
contour. The leading
Impressionist painter Dramatic cliff formations
said he conceived the in Étretat, along the
series when watch ing northern coast of France
light hit a country
church, “as the sun’s Gorgeous Coastlines
rays slowly dissolved Perhaps the most glamorous coastline in the world, the stunning
the mists… that Côte d’Azur stretches along the Mediterranean from Menton to
wrapped the golden Toulon. It’s a favourite retreat for the rich and famous, as the
stone in an ideally lavish mansions and glossy, yacht-filled marinas attest. If you
vaporous envelope”. prefer something wilder, head to the Côte de Granit Rose in
Brittany, or the gloriously craggy Basque coast around Biarritz.
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