Forêt de Saoû and the Tour de Crest: The Perched Forest and One of Europe's Tallest Keeps
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
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Trois Becs Climber
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400
XP
+100 France
= 500 total
2 days
Forêt de Saoû and the Tour de Crest: The Perched Forest and One of Europe's Tallest Keeps
400 + 100 XP
The Forêt de Saoû is a perched syncline, a forest held high in a fold of the rock and ringed by cliffs, reckoned one of the highest of its kind in Europe; its eastern rim carries the Trois Becs — Roche Courbe at 1,545 m, the Signal at 1,559 m and the Veyou at 1,589 m — and only two gaps let a road in. Just to the north the Tour de Crest, 52 m high, is with the keep of Vincennes one of the tallest in Europe since the 54 m keep of Coucy was destroyed in 1917; it was a prison until 1873 and its walls carry hundreds of prisoners' graffiti.
Required Activities
1
of 3
Drive in through one of the only two gaps in the cliff ring — the Pas de Lauzens in the north or the Défilé du Pertuis in the south — and walk the valley floor to the Auberge des Dauphins, the two-Michelin-star restaurant Maurice Burrus built in the shape of the Petit Trianon and opened in 1930 in the middle of his own forest
2
of 3
Climb the rim of the forest to the Trois Becs, going over Roche Courbe at 1,545 m and the Signal at 1,559 m to the Veyou at 1,589 m, pass the Baume-Hannibal where hunters camped between 1050 and 750 BC, and watch the cliffs and screes for chamois, marmots and golden eagles
3
of 3
Climb the Tour de Crest to the upper galleries that were turned from defences into cells, and read the hundreds of graffiti cut by the prisoners held here until 1873 — Huguenots, libertines, republicans, opponents of the Second Empire — including the well-known figure of d'Artagnan; the tower earned the nickname 'the Bastille of the South'
Drive in through one of the only two gaps in the cliff ring — the Pas de Lauzens in the north or the Défilé du Pertuis in the south — and walk the valley floor to the Auberge des Dauphins, the two-Michelin-star restaurant Maurice Burrus built in the shape of the Petit Trianon and opened in 1930 in the middle of his own forest
Climb the rim of the forest to the Trois Becs, going over Roche Courbe at 1,545 m and the Signal at 1,559 m to the Veyou at 1,589 m, pass the Baume-Hannibal where hunters camped between 1050 and 750 BC, and watch the cliffs and screes for chamois, marmots and golden eagles
Climb the Tour de Crest to the upper galleries that were turned from defences into cells, and read the hundreds of graffiti cut by the prisoners held here until 1873 — Huguenots, libertines, republicans, opponents of the Second Empire — including the well-known figure of d'Artagnan; the tower earned the nickname 'the Bastille of the South'
Before you go
From October to March the Tour de Crest only opens at weekends and in the school holidays, 10am to 6pm with the last ticket an hour before — a weekday in January gets you nothing. The Auberge des Dauphins in the forest runs April to October and only on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays in April, May and October; it is a departmental visitor centre now, not the restaurant it was built as. The Trois Becs traverse is the serious part of this day: 1,589 m at the Veyou, on limestone with scree and cliff edges, and in winter it needs snow kit and a settled forecast rather than a walk-up — in summer it needs water, because there is none on the ridge.
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Challenge Location
XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
400 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
500 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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