Castles & Plenty of Falls | Mortain - Exploring France
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| La Petit Cascade - Mortain |
No, not those kind of falls but waterfalls. Before we went to the falls, we thought it was about time we explored the medieval town of Domfront. We have always been a bit put off by Domfront, having only ever driven through it on the way to somewhere else so our first impressions were a bit drab. The parts we've driven though have always been very built up and residential. This is defiantly not the case. Domfront is a beautiful old medieval town with Château ruins and an astonishing church.
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| Ruins of the Château of Domfront |
As we are exploring these places in winter, they are sometimes a bit of a ghost town, but Domfront will be a busy bustling little town as soon as there are tourists. We wondered around trying to find our usual coffee but we struggled to find anywhere open. Only a posh looking bistro serving lunch. Nevertheless, we had a look around the Château, which was a huge area. The Château was built in 1051 and was shortly taken over by William the Conqueror, it then changed hands multiple times over the years and was finally ordered for destruction in 1608. As we walked around the Château we even discovered a house which had been built into the cliff side and reclaimed by nature. This building was used as a shutter for the navy during the war and gate refuge to 500 men during its time. Now, all you can see are the turrets of the building.
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| Through the corridors of the Chateau |
As we walked around, we saw old sites of excavations as well as the partial ruin of the main castle. Quite an impressive place to see and even better that it was free! We then thought we should have a wonder around to see if we could find anything of the medieval town.
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| The old town of Domfront with half timbered houses |
Domfront used to be a walled medieval town, and much of its architecture still remains. As we walked down the cobbled streets and passed the half timbered houses, you really got a sense of what it used to be like. We soon stumbled upon the church, and I love to go into a church and have a look around. This one was completely unique. I have never been in a church like it. Rather than a central nave down to the alter, it was completely round. As you looked up, you could see the central steeple and old painting and mosaque work. I thought this place was easily a few hundred years old, but it wasn’t. It was actually built in 1924 and was undergoing renovations.
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| Eglise Saint - Julien |
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| An old bank? A house? Who knows! |
There are two waterfalls in Mortain, La Petit Cascade and yes, you guessed it La Grande Cascade. We were unsure if we would walk to them both but we defiantly wanted to have a look at La Petit Cascade. We walked down the hill, passed cliff tops following the noise of gushing water. We came across some rapids, which I presumed were the cascade. Matt has been there before so he knew it was a little further up, weaving our way over the river until we got to the waterfall. We hiked along the river, up precarious steps passed sheer rock faces to the stunning Cascade. It was actually very large considering it was the small one. We paused as the waterfalls were deafening and it gave Matt the chance to take some stunning photos:
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| La Petit Cascade of Mortain |
We decided to keep going to La Grande Cascade. This one was so beautiful, we didn't want to miss out. We kept hiking up and soon found the signs, it was only 700 metres away through a lovely little village, so we thought we’d keep going up and down hills. With only 300 metres to go, we went down and tiny narrow path, it felt like we were hiking through the wilderness. Well not really, quite well maintained paths actually. It wasn’t long before we could hear the rushing waterfall up ahead. As we turned the corner, we saw the rapids then the waterfall. We spent a long time here, appreciating its beauty and loud peacefulness of the water gushing down. Oh and we were phsycing ourselves up for the hike back up the hill through town and back to the car. It was a long way up precarious steps, but we made it! There was an information board at the top that spoke about the rock formations. This river cuts into the 475 million year sandstone ridge and seeps through an old fault that was formed 330 million years ago. This was reactivated during the formation of the Alps. To put it into perspective, the Alps was only formed 5 million years ago. It was crazy to think we had just walked up the river bed that was formed 475 million years ago! You must go and see this place if you're ever in the area.
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| La Grande Cascade |
Parking in Mortain - ///spoiled.picket.toymaker
Alternative parking for the falls - ///publish.chug.odds
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