Tour des Baronnies - Days 10 to 13 (The End!)

Day 10.  Rosans to Remuzat

We had a nice gentle descent to start with and passed an abbey with a beautiful field of poppies.  There were also a couple of nuns wandering about completing their morning chores.

Stone in my shoes; I wish there were none

Unfortunately, the hike then turned into a long slog of a climb up a gravel road without much of a view.  It was monotonous and quite hot.

We had a hurried lunch at the top of the climb as we were concerned that the afternoon rain was coming, but fortunately the rain didn’t arrive until we got into our hotel in Remuzat.

Towards the end of the descent into Remuzat we were rewarded with views of a narrow valley, enclosed by cliffs with fascinating rock features.  This is just what you come to expect when walking in the Baronnies Regional Park.

The Roche de Caire (Cairo) dominates the view from Remuzat

Our American neighbour in Buis, Scott, is a physio and he kindly advised us to do stretching at the end of every day which we did (almost).  It kept us in good form.

The accommodation in Remuzat was definitely not small.  It was a very large, fancy holiday park with lots of staff and activities available for guests.  It was far and away the most expensive place that we stayed.  Dinner was a buffet, which was not at all like the home-made cooking with local ingredients that we’d been experiencing.  However, we all decided that it was a nice change and took advantage of everything that a buffet meal has to offer.  We were tipped over the edge by the surprise birthday cake for Daniel.

 

Day 11.  Remuzat to Villeperdrix

The day began with low lying clouds that lifted to reveal a brilliant blue sunny sky.  But by the end of the day, we experienced the strongest storm and hardest hail of all. 

It was also a massive climbing day, and, in total, we think we climbed as much as we did ascending Mt. Ventoux, but unlike Mt. Ventoux it was done in 3 stages rather than all at once.

We got great views of the Oule and Eygues Valleys.

A very sculptural cairn

Dale had been experiencing some tightness in his left calf muscle as a result of slipping down some wet stone steps, outside at Pra Boyer a couple of nights earlier, so he peeled off after a couple of hours to take a quicker and easier route to Villeperdrix before we started the killer climb of the day.

On my less onerous walk I got lovely views of Villeperdrix in sunshine and flowery meadows

 

It wasn’t long but it was extraordinarily steep.  We had to take a break halfway up to recover and were glad that Dale had decided not to attempt it.  We could feel our calf muscles being extended to the maximum so it would likely have done him a lot of damage.

We had a lovely lunch at the top of the climb with vultures circling majestically overhead. 

After lunch we had to start the slippery, steep descent, which was worse than the ascent.  The rain held off until we completed the steepest section, but I still managed to nearly fall once – saved by the batons – and then did fall.  Both times my left foot just slid out from underneath me.  I was still using the very first batons that I ever bought, 14 years ago, and one of them had started to get a little bend a couple of days earlier.  After these two falls it was bent in multiple directions. They’ve since been thrown out and replaced but they did great service and probably saved me from injuries on many occasions.

Even though the rest of the descent wasn’t especially steep it was very slippery, and we were being pelted by a fierce storm, including hailstones.  We were having to descend along narrow paths on the sides of earthen, clayish slopes, often with a slippery steep slope on one side. It was all a bit nerve wracking, and we arrived damp and wet even with all our wet weather gear on.

Dale had arrived in Villeperdrix while it was still sunny but had to wait around for a couple of hours before he could get into the gite.  He got some amazing video footage of the storm as it hit while we were beginning our descent from the final pass.

From Villeperdrix I could see the storm coming from the direction David and co were arriving from

After showering and relaxing we had another nice dinner.  We were entertained by the young owner and her Italian boyfriend, speaking French with a charming Italian accent.  You’d have loved it Catherine P.  As an aperitif they served an agrum (citrus flavoured) rose.  I loved it and thought it would mix beautifully with gin. 

 

The opposite of not much Chop

Dale's shorter route

David's route

Day 12.  Villeperdrix to Ste. Jalle

We walked gently downhill to the charming town of Sahune.  Must come back for a longer visit sometime.  It was then a long and gentle climb up to the croisement du Rocher-Roux but I found it surprisingly difficult.  I think that the efforts of the previous day had taken more out of me than I’d realised.  Dale managed the climb without too much strain on his calf.  He’d made a good decision to take it a little easier the day before.

We were headed for Ste. Jalle, which is where Regine and Fabian live.  As it was predicted to rain from 2 pm (again), we decided to follow Fabian down a couple of short cuts to shave a couple of kms off the stage.  It did involve a bit of pain before we got the reward.  We marched pretty rapidly uphill in humid conditions and then down through lots of prickly grasses and bushes.  We still got caught in some rain but by then we were on a nice, graded dirt road. 

Next Fabian marched us through the vineyard belonging to one of their neighbours, before arriving at their house and farm.

They have a beautiful old solid stone farmhouse that they converted from a ruin over 30 plus years.

We met their dog Gollie, which is a 14-year-old springer spaniel, just like my brother’s dog Lenny.

We also met their very independent cat Geisha.

We had a brilliant last evening.  Best food and entertainment of the hike.  Great aperos, followed by burrata salad and lasagna. And then for dessert – millefeuille.

I had mentioned a week earlier that I’d kill for a millefeuille, and Regine had remembered.  This also led to a discussion about whether there’s an equivalent saying in French.  There is, but it’s a little more graphic – ‘’I’d kill my mother and father for a …’’.

We’ve had a wonderful time learning French idioms.  I’ve learnt that something being ‘’a walk in the park’’ is ‘’I could do it with two fingers stuck up my nose”.  ‘’Is the pope catholic?” is ‘’ask a blind person if they want to see?’’ Not sure about the political correctness of the latter – it’s probably not used in woke, chic Parisienne circles.

Back to our final supper. Fabian also pulled out a couple of superb bottles of wine that his cousin makes.  The grenache was wonderful.  We’re planning a visit to the winery, which is near Bedoin at the base of Mt. Ventoux.  We finished with champagne to celebrate Fabian and Regine’s 40^th wedding anniversary.

As the wine flowed, we learnt that Fabian and their son Clement (who is in the process of taking over the farm), have been featured in a well-known French tv documentary series, Des Racines et Ailles, which is all about French heritage and history.  As I said in an earlier blog, Fabian is one of the people who has been instrumental in reviving petit-epautre and is very committed to organic farming.  He’s not happy about the documentary because he thinks they ignored providing more information about petit epautre, it’s properties, how it is grown and why it can be quite expensive to produce and buy.   Instead they made a jolly documentary about how nice it is to be a French farmer.

Here’s a link to a short highlight video of the episode that I found on Youtube.  It’s in French but you’ll get the gist. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRNODWtCfhg

Day 13.  Ste. Jalle to Buis.

Our last day.

We were joined by three of Jocelyne and Regine’s walking friends: Annie, Sylvie and Dennis.

Regine couldn’t come the whole way, because she had to deal with some farm matters, so she and Annie turned back after lunch.  Annie had driven Sylvie and Dennis over from Buis to Ste. Jalle – so she helped Annie out at the farm and then was able to drive her car home – with some of our stuff so that we could hike with lighter packs.  Yay.

Lovely gentle climb up to the picturesque town of Rochebrune.  We walked through a lot of farmlands and came across the biggest pigs we’ve ever seen.

More like Rochebrigadoon

 

Once we got over the Col de Linceuil, we got some great views of the Col d’Ey with the Ennuye Valley on one side and the Ouveze Valley on the other.

Ennuye Valley far left and Ouveae valley far right, with the road snaking up between to Col d'Ey

While we had lunch, Dale found a translation of snot block (referring to the previous night’s millefeuille).  He had promised that he would tell Regine the Australian slang reference to millefeuille but not while we were eating.  The translation was good because Regine was suitably disgusted and said that she’s never going to be able to look at millefeuille in the same way again. 

Dale had an interesting chat with Fabian about how a lot of farmers are pulling out their apricot trees because they are being screwed over by the large apricot buyers, and climate change is causing more crop damage.  They are replacing them with grenadines.

So lovely to see Buis again after 13 days away

We made it back to Jocelyne and Daniel’s (where we had started 13 days earlier) to pick up the car, moments before the predictable storm hit.  

 

 

A few further reflections

We found the full 13-day Tour de Baronnies unambiguously difficult, but it was doable as we took it slowly and carefully every day and avoided any significant injuries.  Jocelyne said that a lot of people underestimate this hike because the mountains are not especially high.  But you almost always start the day in a valley at a low altitude and still must do a lot of ascending and then descending into another valley in the afternoon.  The weather can also present challenges, especially when walking along the many ridge lines.  They can be dangerous in the extreme heat and during storms.

We thought that there were a few stages when we spent too much time walking along bitumen roads, which was boring.

We learnt a lot more about the Baronnies.  These mountains are a real mish mash, there are very few continuous ranges and they have been described as a landscape puzzle.  However, we have begun to learn the names and trajectories of the main river valleys, which has helped us make some more sense of the region.