Mont Sainte-Victoire
by Céleste
We went on a long walk near the mountain and took a lot of photos.
Getting there
We took the bus Line 13 from the centre ville and got off at Ferrageon (Le Tholonet). Single trips are only one euro so there’s no excuse—it’s only two euros to access a ton of awesome walks. The bus stopped at a small village, Le Tholonet. We purchased a hiking book specifically about Mont Ste. Victoire at the tourism center, so we were working off of that. The trip we chose was “Le Plateau de Bibémus,” which included a view of the Barrage Zola (barrage is French for dam), chateau du Tholonet, and some marvelous views of the mountain. The book is nice because it includes bus routes to get there, maps, and detailed instructions about each trail. They even include animals to watch for and what French trail signs look like.
On the Trail
We started on our trail, no sweat. It seemed easy enough, to walk along the road until we reached a path. On the way, we saw the Chateau, which was gorgeous.
We continued on, taking the trail up an incline, until we reached a fork. Okay, we can figure this out. We took the green trail, otherwise known as “the easy one.” We were finally on our way, in the outdoors and enjoying the amazing scenery! Oh wait.
Everything in France is closed for construction
Here is the beautiful view we saw next.
Basically, the trail is closed until January 16th for construction on the dam. This is not unique to Mt. Ste. Victoire; several other sites we have tried to visit have been closed, including the Museum of Aix History, the Natural History Museum, and the Vietnamese restaurant we have been trying to go to since we got here. Do not trust websites. Do not trust hours and dates and times. They may be open. They are probably closed. I’m not saying you shouldn’t try to go, however; some of our best adventures have only occurred because something was closed that we wanted to do.
So, we headed back to the beginning of the trail, and found a nice, clear, shady area to eat lunch. We had packed deer sausage and cheese sandwiches, clementines, and plenty of water. There’s never enough water, though, which we found out later when we drank it all.
We ended up walking through Le Tholonet. We saw a pretty church as well as the Moulin de Cezanne (Cezanne’s mill).
Plan B
We found a new trail off the path from the Moulin de Cezanne, which was not in the book, but gave us some stunning views nonetheless. The path was called the Chemin de Doudon. We followed it up without any book to guide us, and hoped for the best. We saw some beautiful birds, including some magpies, and heard what we thought may have been an owl. There are grand-ducs in the area, which I wish I could see in person.
We also found a cave opening. So we did what Americans do best and threw rocks at it. I climbed halfway up to the openings to look inside, though I was terrified there would be something scary inside, like a bear or a ghost. There were just rocks though. That we had just thrown in.
We sat down after a while, wondering if we should continue on the trail. An elderly French woman passed us. She greeted us, and asked if we were going to see the Barrage Zola. I asked, “Oh, is it this way?” She pointed the way and smiled. We said goodbye, and she continued as we sat. We decided to follow her, and attempt to reach the Barrage Zola. We forged ahead, hoping to run into her again. After all, she was probably 70 years old, she couldn’t be moving that fast. After a while, Vincent said, “Maybe she was a ghost?” It was spooky, but she wasn’t. We saw her sitting on a bench at the top, looking out at the mountain. But that would have been a cool story if she had been a ghost.
We saw several aqueducts along the way as well.
Le Barrage Zola
Finally, we reached the dam. It was really great to finally see, as our feet were exhausted and Gaston had tripped when he got off the bus, and twisted his ankle. The Zola dam was actually built by the father of Emile Zola, the author, whose work I wrote many papers about in college.
Paul Cezanne (the Aix-en-Provence superstar) even made a painting of the Barrage Zola.
We left the Barrage behind, and continued. And guess what! We ended up leaving the path through the “Do not enter” gate from the beginning of the post. Oops. I told Vincent that if anyone yelled at us, we could just pretend that none of us spoke English. So I guess our lesson from this trip was, closed doesn’t always mean closed and rules are just guidelines here in France. Even as we left there were several people who ignored the warning and walked past us the way we came.
