Walking in Provence

The guidebook provides an excellent selection of 42 walks in France's Provence. Covering the Alps Maritimes, Var, Vaucluse and northern Provence, the suggested walks are of short and medium length, and include all the practical information required for an enjoyable trip.

My love affair with Provence is fairly recent – I never went there as a child or a young adult even though for years I lived within a few hours of the region. However, I have an early memory of my parents going to ‘the Riviera’ and sending us postcards.

Provence at that time would have been quite different to what it is today. Tourism did not extend beyond the coast, where the towns were elegant resorts catering to the wealthier members of Europe only. Elsewhere was still a rural community of small peasant farmers living in primitive hill villages, where life was a constant struggle despite the bewitching landscape of hills and fertile valleys, rugged upland plains and a breathtaking coastline with the deep blue of the Mediterranean lapping the shores of unspoilt fishing villages.

The only facet of Provence my parents would recognise 50 years on would be the enigmatic bright light which sheds a luminosity over the landscape, making even the most humble of buildings glow enticingly. For hundreds of years it has attracted artists, sculptors, writers and, more recently, tourists from all over the world.

I was introduced to the fascinating small roman town of Vaison-La-Romaine near Mont Ventoux in the 1980s because my husband was running a half-marathon nearby around the white jagged peaks of the Dentelles de Montmirail. This turned out to be a yearly weekend event, but instead of running the course I took to walking it. This was fine because there were tidy yellow flags at the side of the path to show me the way. My problems started when, armed with a map, I started to wander elsewhere. Often I got hopelessly lost or ended up in a farmyard being faced by ferociously barking dogs, the problem being that the walking routes are not well marked and sometimes go through private property. This is not welcomed by the independent French farmers.

The idea of writing another book was far from my thoughts, but one day, when walking with my son, we took the wrong turning and, after futile efforts to find our way, ended up hitch-hiking back to Vaison-la-Romaine late for our rendezvous. Meanwhile my husband was making enquiries of an indifferent officer at the police station, who was merely puzzled and surprised that anyone would want to hoof off into the surrounding hills, let alone get lost in them! With a classic Gallic shrug he dismissed the idea of an eventual search party, walking any long distance being completely foreign to the average Provençal.

Finally safe and sound over a drink in the bustling main square, Angus looked at me wearily: ‘I think this will have to be your next book Mum, otherwise I’m not walking with you again around here.’ He was quite right. I felt that in order to get to know all the diverse areas of this fascinating region and to be able to share my knowledge and enjoyment with others I would have to write another book.

This book has been a challenge but thanks to the support of many, and the friends who came to walk and inevitably get lost with me, the project has become reality. And of course Provence is now ‘under my skin’ and I can’t leave it.

The Provençal Regions

If you drive down through France on the motorway aptly named La Route du Soleil (‘sun road’), you will notice that after Valence, south of Lyon, the landscape starts to alter and the light changes. Everything suddenly looks clearer, the sun is brighter, the sky bluer. The little red-roofed villages stand out on the hillsides, each with its distinctive iron trellised church bell-tower; where there were fir trees there are now pines and tall cypresses; placid cows, green pastures, maize and wheat fields give way to stony vineyards, rows of purple lavender, olive trees and broom.

You feel a certain indolence take hold; things that were stressful and important have taken on a trivial air. The air is warm and smells of pine trees and herbs; the people on the motorway péages (toll booths) actually smile! It could all be imagination or just the Mediterranean magic that has seduced thousands of tourists as they enter Provence.

Provence is situated in the south-eastern corner of France but the exact boundaries are an enigma. The well-known Michelin Guide, for example, excludes the Alpes Maritimes (Riviera) and also northern Provence, but includes the Gorges d’Ardèche (there are separate books for the other two areas).

Most other guides include five regions, namely the Alpes Maritimes, Var, Bouches du Rhône, Vaucluse and northern Provence. Officially the region Provence-Corse-Côte d’Azur was created in 1956; Corsica became independent in 1970 leaving Provence-Côte d’Azur, which then split into the five departmental regions in 1971.

For my part I have excluded the Bouches du Rhône, which includes the flat Carmargue plain, and split the Vaucluse into two areas, Mt. Ventoux and the Luberon.

When describing each area I have suggested a few towns and villages where the visitor might like to stay. There are dozens of excellent guides to Provence in English giving myriad places to visit, including architectural sites and museums plus lists of hotels, restaurants and campsites.

None of the walks I selected was more than an hour by car from where I was based. In the Alpes Maritimes I stayed in a friend’s house in the village of Le Rouret, conveniently situated between Vence and Grasse. In the Var I had a cosy little cottage on a wine estate outside the village of Nans-les-Pins, south of St-Maximin-la-Ste-Baume, east of Aix-en-Provence. Saignon, a hill village above Apt, was my base in the Luberon, and I stayed in Le Barroux, near Carpentras, for my walks near the Mt. Ventoux. Finally the larger town of Digne-les-Bains was my temporary home for the wilder walks in northern Provence.

Although France is well known for its long-distance Grande Randonnée paths which criss-cross the whole of the country including the Provençal region, the markings on other paths were somewhat haphazard. This has changed recently as the local syndicats d’initiative (information centres) have become better organised. In order to attract tourists many villages publish leaflets (in French) with maps indicating the various boucles (circular routes) that can be made around the village.

It should be pointed out that walking in Provence is often a lonely occupation – while the towns, especially on the coast, are thronged with people, the hills are often devoid of anyone apart from sheep, and it is easy to lose your way. Unlike the Alps there is rarely a cosy mountain refuge just around the corner or a handy walker to ask directions from. Walking for pleasure is foreign to the nature of the average Provençal who would rather sit under a tree and drink a pastis.

But the walking is magical and full of discovery – an ancient ruin, a tumbledown village, monuments, shrines, bories, oppidums and old canals – this is a countryside with a past and when walking in it you stumble on history! The attraction of Provence is its diversity – one day you can be walking on a remote plateau or windswept hill, the next down a leafy gorge. Wherever you are you feel you need to linger, to explore further and reflect on the hitherto hard life of the peasants who scratched a living from the stony soil, many to abandon their remote villages and move to the towns.

There are so many interesting diversions that walks often take longer than anticipated, but the air is warm and fragrant with herbs – time takes on a new meaning.

When you finally arrive back there is hopefully that pastis waiting for you in a little café under shady trees in the main square of the village.