Les Pénitents, Natural rock formation in Les Mées, France.
Les Pénitents is a cliff of poudingue, a rock of cemented pebbles, rising above the Durance Valley and the village of Les Mées. Its erosion has left thick, rounded pillars with deep vertical grooves, packed side by side so their tops form a jagged skyline. The light tan to grey rock meets a band of green trees and shrubs, with a dry yellowish field below.
These formations took shape over millions of years as water and weather carved the conglomerate stone into cone shapes. Alpine geological shifts and the steady flow of the Durance River accelerated the sculpting process.
The name comes from the cone shapes, which resemble a line of figures in sackcloth robes. A medieval legend tells that Count Raimbaud brought seven Saracen women back from the Crusades; monks of the Lure mountain escorted them toward the Durance wearing deep cowls. The devil blew up a wind that lifted the cowls, and thunder turned the monks to stone. A wooden cross one monk carried is said to remain visible in the rock.
The formations stand above the village of Les Mées, at one of the entrances to the Haute-Provence Geological Nature Reserve, and are reached by road from the Durance valley. The cliff base meets a band of trees and shrubs above a flat, dry field. Part of the terrain became unstable after heavy weather in late 2019, so keep to marked paths and heed any closure signs.
In 2019 heavy rainfall caused one of the formations to collapse onto three houses in the village below. Since then, protective measures have been put in place to prevent further rockfalls.
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