A bit of a postcard shot, but who could resist a view like this?

The is the Gorge de l'Ardeche in Southern France. The river Ardeche has carved it's way through a high Limestone plateau, the resulting gorge has become known as Europe's Grand Canyon (but it is a bit smaller....quite a bit really...). The cliffs are up to 300metres (about a 1000 feet) high. The gorge is about 30 kilometres long and the river is full of canoes in the summer. The gorge apparently has some 2000 caves in it's walls, many of then were inhabited by ancient man. The most famous is the Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc which has some of the earliest known cave paintings - it is quite extraordinary.