Professor Mikhal and I took the bus to Marseille early this morning to meet with the students and professor. But, alas, the bus they rented for the day was short one seat! So, they kindly drove us back to Aix, where we picked up the car that I have access to right now so we could drive and follow the bus. Here's out route...
Then on to the roman bridge...le Pont Julien...over the Calavon River, which is tributary to the Durance, which is tributary to the Rhone...
The Calavon River is not in very good shape...poor water quality and further downstream, some major channel-adjustment problems...bank erosion was threatening the highway, the historic roman road and a house, so they did some major bank protection work, but then incision, vegetation encroachment, channel shrinkage and beaver nearly completely closed the channel. Most recent work involved re-activating a side channel...
Our last stop was at the tourist town of Fontaine de Vaucluse. Vaucluse means closed valley. The valley terminates in steep cliff walls. The source of the Sourge River is in this valley... springing forth entirely from spring water! Hydrogeologically, it's a fascinating site...and spectacularly beautiful as well. The bonus for me was visiting the historic paper mill that is still operating and buying some of their beautiful paper. The monsieur in the paper mill shop said that there would be a paper-maker there tomorrow...maybe I'll go back with my mom and Josie tomorrow?
