The Gorges de Galamus as seen from St. Paul, near Le Chapitre, in 2014.
Over a hundred years ago, a narrow roadway through the Gorges de Galamus was carved into the sheer stone wall dozens of meters above the Agly at great cost and with even greater ingenuity. A poem in Occitan was written in honor of the builders:
Dins aquel roc pelat que trauco la sabino
Oun l’aglo dins soun bol gausabo soul beni
Penjat per un courdel ambe la barromino
L’home coumo l’ausel a troubat un cami
—Léones Rives, “Dedication, 1892”
In this riven rock where sprouts the juniper
Where only the eagle in flight dared to come
Hanging by a rope with his blasting powder
The man, like the bird, found a way home
—Trans. by R Young
studio arago 