Vanlife in the Gorges Du Verdon: Hiking and Kayaking in Europe’s Grand Canyon

Vanlife in the Gorges Du Verdon: Hiking and Kayaking in Europe’s Grand Canyon

Hi, we’re Richard and Jackie from Early Retirement Wonderust and we are partway through our six week VW camper van road trip around France and we are at the moment heading towards the gorgeous Diveron [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] So, after a few days of rest and recuperation, we’re moving on and we’re headed down to the gorgeous diver finally. And I’m really excited because I’ve seen so many beautiful pictures of it and I really want to maybe have a go at some of the either river rafting or kayaking, but just do something that’s really special there. Any thoughts of driving around it? Nope, not at all. So, I’ll be driving around it. It’s about 2 and 1 half hours from here. So, we’ll catch up with you on the way. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat up here. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Right, [Music] [Music] I got a dad fact for you. Now, I’m a little bit sketchy on some of the details, but the uh the basic premise is that there’s two peaks up there, and there is a big chain swung between the two with a gold star on. Allegedly, it was put in place by a 12th century knight who had returned from the Crusades. And as part of his sort of blessing and recognition that he’d got home safely, he strung that chain up with the star. And then, obviously, there is the church below it. I think that’s a good dad fact. It was a pretty incredible drive getting from the lakes to the town that we’re now based in which is Mustier San Marie. We are in the gorgeous Du Verdan. We took a route that was recommended actually by one of our subscribers who said don’t travel on the main roads. Actually take some of like the roads around the lake and take your time and go the back roads and we were not disappointed. It was just so lovely exploring somewhere new completely off the beaten path. We seemed like we were descending forever and we’re still at height. So, it just goes to show how high the Alps are. Call us naive, but we never realized that. And we also never realized how far the Alps went on. But yeah, a lovely drive down to an absolutely beautiful village and a cracking little campsite. €19 a night on Axi, but a little bit more of that later on. So, when we got to the campsite, we are about I don’t know half a kilometer from the village. So, we thought we’d go for a bit of a hike and just see what the village was like. We were just going to have a bit of a saunter and come back. 5 km later and coming back in the dark. We had stayed up there for the sunset and I spotted a little church that was right up in the cliffs and decided that I really wanted to go up and see that as well. It’s a stunning little village and sometimes these moments you just stumble upon them. And yeah, we got back late. Yeah, it was dark. Yeah, we hadn’t eaten. But we’d had such an amazing evening and we’re just keeping our fingers crossed that the images we get to show you sort of reflect what a wonderful evening we had. It was the most stunning sunset and up from the cliffs where the little chapel was. You could look down over the village, the sun was setting just over the mountains behind it. It was just one of them surreal moments. So, we’re sort of gathering ourselves now for the next few days. We have no real plans. We’re definitely going to go for a walk down into the gorgeous Duvan. And then there’s quite a famous driving loop I think we’re going to try and do. Yep. And there is a big lake probably only 3 or 4 km from the village. So we want to go and do a bit of water sports on the lakes. Although seemingly a lot of the places have shut down. They they finished at the end of August when the kids went back. We’re hoping we’ll find somewhere that will have some entertainment for us and activity that we can do. But for us, it’s three or four days of slowing down now, exploring a brand new area. It’s so exciting. We’re filming here and we can look up there and we’re just overlooked by the biggest rock face and it’s an incredible location and we’ve got loads to explore. Hi. So, we’re a couple of weeks into our French road trip and we are having the most amazing time. For most of our inspiration for this road trip, we are actually using Robbie Rome’s No Fuss Travels France road trip guide. It’s a new publication that only came out this June and there are some absolutely amazing suggestions of places to visit. If you check out our Instagram, and I’m sure Richard will put a link somewhere up here for the Instagram, you can see some of the brilliant places that we found so far. And we’ve also got an offer with No Fuss Travel Guides. If you put the book and the map into your basket, you will get free postage and packaging and the free map, but you need to use the code wonderlust. So, that’s it from me. Bye. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] What are you waiting for, Rich? Wait for the bridge to stop moving and someone to replace that plank that’s missing down there. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat up [Applause] [Music] here. Morning. Morning. Yesterday was a long, long old day. We drove out to go into the gorgeous de Verdon, but it was quite a drive for Richard. It was a little bit challenging, but it’s always going to be challenging if you are deciding to cut roads into the sides of mountains. Most of the time there were loads of sort of barriers and protector points, but there were the odd hair pin that just seemingly had little slates about that high that sort of protected you from going over the edge. It didn’t feel that comfortable, but it got us to a stunning location. It did. I had quite a few moments. It’s a good job I wasn’t driving. So, we got to the start point. We had highlighted a hike that we wanted to do. It’s quite a famous hike. It’s 14 kilometers if you did the whole hike going from our start point right to the end of the gorge. And you can get picked up by a bus or a taxi to bring you back to the start. We weren’t organized enough because we didn’t know what day we wanted to do the hike to book the transport. So, we did a hike about seven or eight kilometers down into the gorge along the valley which was absolutely stunning. It was very reminiscent of when we went to the Grand Canyon and they talk about it as being Europe’s Grand Canyon or France’s Grand Canyon. And they’re not far wrong. To be honest, it was seriously impressive. But it takes a normal walk and flips it on its head because you actually start off and you start walking downhill for a very long period of time and then that conversely at the end of the walk is a seriously uphill hike out of the gorge. And yeah, we were cooked. We were It was about 25 27° heat. We were finishing the height sort of mid-after afternoon. It was maybe about 2:00. So, we were hiking in the height of the day going 5 600 m of elevation straight up. But it was really worth it. I can’t describe the valley floor. It was just beautiful. The water is the scacial blue water. You didn’t get to see it that often, which was actually made it a bit more special because you’d hike for a kilometer and a half and then you’d come out to a point where it opens up again and the view would change. The gorge would either widen or narrow. You were sometimes just in shadow cuz it was so narrow in parts. But the it was beautiful. Yeah. And the feeling of just being absolutely dwarfed by these massive canyon walls and at times not really being able to see very much daylight above you. It was Yeah. just one off the bucket list. We we’d been wanting to do this for a couple of years and it was a really really good walk. The highlight of the walk for Richard was well there was two actually that I made him do. One was the bridge. Did you like the bridge, Rich? No. I have serious issues about height and things that move at height. Why do they design a bridge that is designed to move and sway? And it obviously just got worse as you got closer to the middle. And the handrails disappeared when you got to the middle as well. It was horrific. It was a wonderful Yeah. great experience to look up and down the river, but oh yeah, it really did test my head for heights and I didn’t like it at all. And the other thing that tested his head for heights was the turning point for us on the hike. We had done about 7 or 8 km and we got to a point where there was I’m going to say maybe 200 m of elevation going down and it was all done on old step ladders. We did go down about 50 m of it to a little bit of a viewing point and had decided that we weren’t going to go right down to the bottom because we knew we were having to come back again. But even going back up those 50 m of the steps, one, they were really really narrow. I think it was literally only as wide as myself. Two, they were really steep. And three, my legs just doing that 50 m were killing. An impressive piece of architecture. And hats off to the teams that went in there and put those in place because yeah, it took you to places that you would never have got to. When we got out, we had a bit of a a cool down period of sitting in the shade and drinking a cool Coke uh full sugar actually because we rarely have that, but we desperately needed the energy. And then we did quite an iconic drive, a loop drive um around more of those mountain roads, but it just took you across the tops of the canyon and you could look down. It was pretty breathtaking. It was pretty breathtaking, but also it for us even more impressive because we could actually see the parts of the route that we’ taken right down in the canyon. So, it was pretty special for us actually looking where we’d been that morning. So, today we’re looking for a slightly easier day. Um, we’re going to go for a little bit of a paddle in a kayak and hopefully be able to meander our way up into the gorgees from the lakeside, which should be really interesting. We haven’t been out in a boat for a while, so we’ll just see how it goes. I’m great at kayaking. I’ve got such good coordination. Richard’s going to love me. And then we’ve uh we’re eyeing up a meal out tonight in the village because the the village is just so picturesque. We thought, yeah, we haven’t had a meal out, I don’t think, at all on this trip. So, yeah, that’s what we’re going to treat ourselves to tonight. [Music] I’m making Rich do all the paddling for me. [Music] [Music] love. [Music] It’s a pretty cool way to spend a silly afternoon. This is the lake that the gorgeous Diver Verdan River floats into. And it’s actually a lot warmer than I thought it was going to be. Yeah. And it’s just really, really busy in a really nice way. Um, obviously the French culture, I think, on a Sunday afternoon is to come out and picnic when the weather is good. So, there’s loads of car parks. There’s loads of places actually under the shade to have a picnic. And there’s loads of people out just having fun on a weekend. It is just wonderful. And have a look at this backdrop. So, how blue was that water? It was incredibly clear when we actually got out on the kayaks. And we had such fun. You know, when you’ve got blue water like that, it’s going to be blooming cold. And the further we got up river, you could feel the cold water stream coming down. Ironically, the lake was beautiful to swim in. But yeah, it was an incredible experience and definitely a bucket list experience. We wanted to kayak up that section of the gorgeous Derdan for so many years. And actually the best photos that we’ve managed to get of the trip is when we were standing on the bridge looking over the gorge. It’s just something that you need to do at some point if you’re ever in France on a road trip. It was really busy and you’ve got to accept that it’s going to be really busy at a place like that. It didn’t feel like it was too expensive. The kayak cost us €40 for two hours, which was enough to get up and back. And it felt all right in terms of value, didn’t it? It did. We funnily enough bumped into two subscribers coming towards us halfway up the gorge, which was lovely. So, we did have a bit of a float and a rest cuz they were in a pedal and we were kaying. So, it gave us a good chance to have a rest. But, it was lovely just meeting people so out of the blue in the middle of the river. So, I think that was Jamie and Naomi. And if you are watching, have a look cuz we have got a clip of you somewhere. After the two hours of kayaking up the gorge, we sat by the lake and we had a really chilled afternoon. We had a sunbathe, we had a picnic, and we just watched the world go by. There was loads of parasenders landing in the field right by us. They kept flying over us, which was really nice to see. It was health and safety gone mad. I was lying there and every so often a shadow used to come across you. Um, and you’re thinking, “Oh, I hope they get it right.” And they all did get it right. Of course they got it right. But yeah, it was uh quite a spectacle. And then last night we went out out. We did got dressed up. We um had showers so we smelt really nice and clean. And we had a meal up in the town which is Mistier and it was absolutely delicious. I think I had pizza envy from Richard. I had spaghetti bolognese, but your pizza, wow, it was one of the best pizzas I’ve had and you know that I’m a pizza fan. But yeah, it was really good. It had got like a a fresh bowl of mozzarella in the middle which was quite unique really. Um, yeah, really nice night out. Uh, top tip in France, however, uh, eating out places were really limited on a Monday. Quite a lot of the bars and things like that shut on a Monday. So, we were really lucky that this one place that we had our eye on was open. We were also really lucky that they did something in France that they call Piches. So, we had a piche of Van Ros and then we really pushed the boat out and we also had half a liter of red wine as well. So, we did stumble back down the hill. Luckily, it was downhill, not uphill. But we had a lovely night. For the last four nights, we’ve stayed at Camping Sanjon, which is on the edges of the village Mustier San Marie, and it is an absolutely brilliant find. It was only 19 a night. It’s within walking distance of the local town. It’s got everything that we need here, and it’s a great base to explore the gorgeous Duvadan. You can’t actually do much in the gorgees from one base. You do need to move the van, which has been a bit of a pain packing it up every day, but we’d have had to do that no matter where we stayed. As Jackie mentioned, it’s a great basic campsite with all the facilities that you could need. It’s even got a little bar, a little shop. It does a bread service. It’s got a pizzeria on an evening. So, it really does have everything you need. But I know what you’re all waiting for. Let’s rate my shower. [Music] Welcome to Camping St. Jeene in Mustier San Marie. A small and well modernized shower facility in a soft baby blue color scheme. An interesting drainage system with water draining into the adjacent service area. Good quality hooks with an innovative and inspirational hack. A silicon bung to stop things dropping off the stainless steel hook. A robust towel rail arrangement and a small but rather inefficient seating option. Push button shower with therma regulation builtin. A modern shower head offering good pressure and an adequate spray diameter. Another innovation, a hidden waste bin in the service area with each cubicle having a waste hatch. Overall strengths, hook innovation, hot water and drainage. Areas to develop the number of showers at peak times and shelves. An overall score of 41 out of 50 for Camping St. Jeene in Mustier St. Marie. The campsite seems really dog friendly. Seemingly most motor homes have got a dog or two with them. And there is Wi-Fi, but we haven’t tested it. So, I’m not sure how strong it is. We tend to find in a lot of the French campsites that the Wi-Fi isn’t strong enough for the needs that we have with our YouTube uploading. So, we just do it off our data. The pictures, as you would expect, are well separated out. They do vary a little bit in sizes from a good size to absolutely enormous, so you’re never going to feel like you’re squeezed in anywhere. And as Jackie said, it’s been a wonderful find using the Axis system. It’s not the most expensive campsite in the world anyway, but €19 a night on the Axi system is an absolute bargain. And actually, the thing that sold it for me is we are sitting here on the doorstep of the van and we have got the most incredible view looking over that way. And I’m sure Richard will put a nice photo to show you of the cliffs of part of the gorgees of Du Verdad. So, it’s a winner winner. Well, that’s it from us for this week. We are moving on. We’re not 100% sure of where we’re going to be going next week. The gorgeous Duvan have been on our bucket list for a while and they have not disappointed, but it’s time to move on. And who knows where we’ll end up next week, but we’ll see you later. Bye-bye. Bye. [Music] [Music]

Join us as we take our van into one of France’s most breathtaking natural wonders — the Gorges du Verdon, often called Europe’s Grand Canyon. From epic cliffside hikes to turquoise waters perfect for kayaking, this adventure had it all!

In this video, we:
✅ Explore scenic hiking trails with jaw-dropping canyon views
✅ Kayak through the Verdon River’s emerald waters
✅ Share a glimpse of daily vanlife in the French countryside
✅ Walk with us as we discover one of France’s most beautiful villages

The Gorges du Verdon is an absolute bucket-list destination if you love nature, adventure, or road trips in France. Whether you’re planning your own vanlife journey through Europe or just love armchair adventures, we hope this video inspires you to add this magical place to your travels!

We are Richard and Jackie and we live in the UK. We retired from teaching at the age of 51 in the summer of 2022. Our plans for early requirement include relocating to the Yorkshire Dales, developing our forever home and travelling the UK, Europe and eventually the world in our VW campervan Nelson.

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Check out our blog http://earlyretirementwanderlust.com

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Many thanks,

Richard & Jackie