Our Blog - Pyrénées - Les Orgues at Ille-sur-Têt, France

While we didn't go to the town of Ille-sur-Têt, we did go by a geological site called Les Orgues, The Organs. They are "fairy chimneys" that are the result of erosion of the sedimentary rocks 4 million years old.

A model of the site.

A fairy chimney is a model of differential erosion which takes the form of a column of soft rock surmounted by a more resistant "hat" or "hoodoo". In a place where vegetation is sparse, the rain can get to the sandstone and form gullies by removing, little by little, the sand. The hoodoos are formed where you have vegetation or a hard rock layer that covers the delicate stone below and somewhat protects what is below. If the hoodoo has more vegetation, it protects better than where the vegetation is sparse. Over time, the chimney below the hoodoo is eroded away and the rock cap loses the foundation, and it collapses. There isn't much else to say ... so there will be just a bunch of pictures to allow you to try to imagine that you are there.

Just a note here ... our trip was at the end of June. If you look closely in the middle of the picture, you can make out the white snow that still remained in some of the highest crevices of the Pyrenees.

Lucy had an interesting time there ... you can see she loves to roll around in the sandy soil and get pebbles all over her face!

Some interesting metal sculptures along our route.