Le Mont Ventoux

Celebrated our first Saturday night by having dinner at La Ribote, which is quickly becoming our favourite restaurant in town. We love the excellent value, fresh as fresh, Provençale (with Asian influences – go figure), 3 course meals. 

Our co-owner Ben arrived late in the evening as we were outside chatting with Scott and Betsy and Betsy’s sister Meg and her husband Stephen. 

We finally got around to having Sunday lunch at Le Charette Bleu. It is a half an hour drive away on the route towards Nyons and we think that it was originally recommended to us by Ben’s parents. Luckily, we made a booking because the place was full. We really enjoyed the traditional French food and excellent service. 

On Saturday our friend Jocelyne had dropped by and proposed that we do a big hike together on Monday as part of our training for the upcoming Tour des Baronnies. When she proposed a walk on the slopes on Mt.Ventoux we were excited because we haven’t done any walks there. However, we didn’t realise that we would be doing one of the biggest hikes we’ve ever done. We drove up a valley between Entrechaux and Malaucene and when the road ran out and the hiking trail started, we were at 600 metres altitude. We then climbed 1300 metres to the summit of Mt.Ventoux. All up the return distance was 22kms. We may have done a similar day or two when hiking the Tour de Mont Blanc 10 years ago and the tour des Queyras 14 years ago, but we were a fair bit younger. At least we were carrying under 10 kgs in our backpacks.

Our point of departure

Looking back in the general direction of Malaucene

 

The ascent took 5 hours and because it was so long, we stopped for lunch on the way up.  Great views!!

The last hour or so was a real slog as the ascent became very steep, the landscape barren and the wind started whipping around us. 

We’ve driven to the top before and experienced the amazing difference in temperature between the top and bottom of Mt.Ventoux, but arriving at the summit was still a complete shock to the senses. The wind smacked us in the face, and it was so cold that our hands were turning blue.  We all immediately threw on our jumpers and full-strength raincoats.

The evidentiary photo that we had reached 1910m

We were keen to get back down and out of the wind, so we didn’t linger at the top.  The descent was much quicker and only took 3 hours.  We descended by a mostly different route and were able to get down about 500 metres of altitude really quickly – in under 30 minutes.  But some of it was hair raising and the rest was simply hard on the knees.  The bit that was initially hair raising was sliding down a steep slope of scree.  I’m not a skier but I have done a little snow shoeing and Dale and Daniel said to think of that and to zig zag my way down while walking on the backs of my heals and going with the sliding that ensued.  I was slower than the others but made my way down and it did start to feel quite comfortable.  

Having slid/walked down the hill behind David, we inevitably has stones in our boots

Next, we had to descend a grassed ski slope.  We’ve done this before so were prepared for how hard it is on the knees.  The reward was how fast we went and how much altitude we dropped. 

The rest of the descent was okay although it was rocky and - for the umpteenth time – hard on the knees.

At the end we were so happy to have climbed this amazing mountain and feel that we can hold our own with the people we know who’ve ridden their bikes up – although this just confirms what I’ve always known, which is that they are just downright crazy.

Daniel had to race us back to Buis for a big dinner in the ruelle, being put on by our neighbours Scott and Betsy.  We got back in time to have showers while everyone else got started on aperitifs.  Ben was there, as well as Betsy, Scott, Meg, and Stephen.   Friends of Betsy and Scott (Beezy and Steve) also drove up from Provence to spend a night in Buis.  We had a lovely time sitting outside as the sun went down eating in the ruelle outside our homes, chatting with one another and everyone else who passed by.  They put on a lovely meal and there was plenty of wine to go around.  But unsurprisingly we crashed early and had the deepest night’s sleep.

Clockwise from David: Steve, Beezy, Ben, Meg, Steve, Betsie and Scott

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent recovering and hanging about town.

On Wednesday afternoon we drove back to the start of the Mt.Ventoux hike to take photos of this valley road, which we had not been along before Monday.  Along the way we went past the Gorges du Toulourenc and then retraced our steps to Beaumont du Ventoux and Les Alazards.

This was followed by discovering back roads into Malaucene and Entrechaux, then driving along the Ouveze River between Mollans sur Ouveze and Vaison la Romaine. 

 

Just for you Julianne

The vines are coming alive with new leaves; on the edge of Entrechaux

Nice to discover some new swimming holes for when the weather heats up a bit more

Ben cooked up a sensational leek, asparagus and cheese quiche for dinner and then we had strawberries and ice-cream for dessert.  The leeks, asparagus and strawberries are fantastic here now.

 Dale had a sore knee on Thursday, so I did the Thursday hike alone.  He’s not sure whether the sore knee was linked to the Mt.Ventoux hike but in any event, it is now resolved.  The hike started near Condorcet and climbed steeply to a ridge.  Beautiful views and lots of orchids.  Apparently the yellow ones are rare.  

I received preliminary instructions from Christine about how to make home-made liqueur, after having complimented her thyme flavoured liqueur the week before.  It’s a bit of a thing in the club – I’ve also always looked forward to the home-made liqueurs that another lady, Vivienne, also produces from time to time.  It’s quite a contrast to the hiking club we’ve joined at home, which does not encourage taking alcohol on hikes.  We told our fellow Randouveziens about this and they’re concerned that this hiking club is not really for us.  But I’m not sure that I’m up to the task of making my own concoction.

On Friday we were up early to see Anthony and Dennis who are staying in Aix-en-Provence.  We picked them up and drove to La Ciotat for lunch.  Then we drove along the Route des Cretes for the first time in 14 years.  There were stunning views of the Mediterranean, calanques and, initially of La Ciotat, and then Cassis.

Looking over La Ciotat

Anthony spotted this hummingbird-style moth which was a challenge to capture well

Looking at the calanques in the direction of Marseilles

Anthony, David and Dennis on the cliffs overlooking Cassis

Stopped for ice-cream and a walk around the port in Cassis.

Spent the night in Aix-en-Provence.  More challenges charging the Tesla – fixed by downloading the right app and paying money.

On Saturday the 4 of us drove to a bird park in the Camargue, which is a protected areas of salt marshes.  We spent hours wandering around, not being able to get enough of flamingos.

 

The variety of Flamingo in France is the Greater Flamingo

Lots and lots of these ones

Black-winged stilt

We dropped Dennis and Anthony in Arles to get the train back to Aix and we drove on to Carpentras to spend the night so that we could be on the ground for the regular Sunday antiques and flea market.

We had Sunday lunch at La Bartavelle in Vaison-la Romaine, which was recommended by Annie and Patrick.  It was a perfect lunch, although I ate way too much.  We loved how well sound baffled the room was.  The restaurant was full, and everyone was nattering away, but you never felt that it was noisy.  Very warm service and great Provençale food.