The canyon of Verdon and Moustiers-Ste-Marie

Another day trip, another load of photos, again too tired to write a story, so here are just photos by now.

If I hadn't found the battery charger, then taking pictures during my stay would have stopped at 10:50 today. Then replaced it, and later replaced that with the third which in the evening was empty as well.

Also coming: the French signs. A sign Parking ingrown into a tree trunk was particularly inspiring.

Verdon, l'Ourbes

Le Grand Canyon du Verdon

Le Verdon, le Grand Margès

Moustiers-Ste-Marie

Moustiers-Ste-Marie, Lac de Sainte-Croix

Moustiers-Ste-Marie, the chapel above the village. Note the ledge used to support the vault when being constructed. Such ledges had been present for all vaults and arches of the nave, though in some places the wall had been hewn smooth.

Moustiers-Ste-Marie

Moustiers-Ste-Marie. The parish church, view to the east. This shape of the vault marked the starting transition from Romanesque to Gothic style: a ridge had appeared at the top of the otherwise cylindrical vault, and it used transverse stiffening arches instead of uniform massive vaulting. As the next photo below shows, such vault was still very heavy and acted badly for the (unsupported!) walls.

Moustiers-Ste-Marie. The paris church, view to the west. The barrel vault has indeed pressed the nave walls quite much out of the vertical (in the areas where the walls did not have supporting buttresses). Note that the vault-constructing ledge is present also here, as it was in the upper chapel. As for the walls, then note how the niches create alternating thinner walls and supporting columns, as typical to the Gothic style.

Moustiers-Ste-Marie, the paris church. The choir has flying buttresses, although its windows are all with the round arches (its nave vault appears to be late 13th-c. though)

Lavender field in autumn