Whoever said you needed to travel far to find yourself some breathtaking views, was wrong. Horribly wrong. Some people tend to forget how beautiful Europe is, and how much different kinds of landscape you can find over here.

I myself was instantly captivated by the Ardèche-region, a with a very rough but breathtaking scenery. Today, I’m taking you into the canyon, the Gorges d’Ardèche ..

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The Gorges de l’Ardèche is made up of a series of ‘gorges’ in the river, locally known as the ‘European Grand Canyon’. It forms a thirty-kilometre long canyon running from Vallon-Pont-d’Arc to Saint-Martin-d’Ardèche.

Most of the canyon is protected by law and is inaccessible except by water – exploring by canoe or kayak being one of the few possibilities – it provides a very rough, but authentic experience. Take a look for yourself.

At the end of our 16km Kayak-trip, we paused briefly at the Pont d’Arc – where a natural whirlpool tipped us over – a natural arch 60m wide and 54 m high. It’s very crowded here, so we only took the obliged photo and left.

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To end out day, we rode up the mountain to take some beautiful pictures of the Gorges from above, to fully understand why they call this ‘The European Grand Canyon’. Can you blame them?

TIP: Book yourself a slightly longer Kayaking-tour if you want to experience the true beauty of this place. The short routes are awfully crowded, so you’ll miss a lot of the peace-and-quiet this beautiful place provides.

A kayaking trip will cost you about 15 euros or more per person, depending on the type of kayak and distance. We booked our Kayak Trip here.