The walks

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Sep 20 Warm-up Walk
After a leisurely breakfast and a last walk around town we had the taxi take us to St. Remy de Provence (Sherpa organized). The taxi was doing 120km in single lane traffic. We flew by everything and were in Remy 10 minutes ahead of schedule. Checked in to a beautiful hotel and then did our warm-up walk. St Remy has 21 Van Gogh posters on sign posts around town and in the nearby Roman ruins. We walked all over trying to get to them all. The route just happened to take us through many of those little alley ways that are loaded with quaint shops selling all kinds of specialties. I gave up on the posters and instead tried to see as many of the shops as I could before closing at 7 pm. Then we had dinner and back to the hotel to lay out our gear for the morning. Got the pedometer up to 15,750 steps.
Sep 21 The First is the Worst
Don’t do this one Lizzie.
I read all the material carefully I thought. This was supposed to be a hard day but not as high as nor as far as days on our Wainwright walk in England. Seems I am easily fooled by brochure descriptions. I read over the day’s route last night but I obviously was too sleepy or too Pollyanna about it.
Breakfast was a bit of a letdown. No protein and the fruit was a fruit cocktail so nothing for the road. With just 2 cups of coffee (not espresso!) and a croissant we headed out. Went to a small grocery mart and picked up 2 ham sandwiches and a spare bottle of water. This would be enough water counting our Camelbaks for tomorrow’s trip which is half as far and not as high!
We never got lost. We headed straight for the cliffs and had some nice steady climbing under lovely Van Gogh type trees. It was beautiful for about 2 hours. Never saw a soul. Then the trees disappeared and the landscape became drier and rockier and gravelly. This went on for another hour and I made the comment about it being rather boring just steadily going up in the sun. That changed we had to do a steep climb up rocky trails which turned into paths. But the scenic view was definitely worth it. Actually saw another couple here and then they disappeared. I sat and sketched and since it was only 11:30 we would eat later. Next we took an easy path down and around a cliff. For the next 2 hours we walked through regular paths but then the guide book says “Turn left and walk through the brush heading to the rock face. There is no obvious path here just some openings in the shrub. Have a leap of faith and continue until you come to a broken green fence”. When I read this part last night I was thinking shrub. Shrub about 2 feet high maybe 3. This was shrub 10 feet high, thick with wild climbing thorny rose, prickly juniper, nettles and no path. Nothing. A boar would have trouble moving through this stuff. We had to go only 50 meters but we couldn’t see our feet let alone what lay in front of us. Ross had to go first because his legs were longer and he could crack branches down for me. It took us 45 minutes to get through- it was insane. What shocked me was we ended up exactly at the fence. I had visions of us stuck (literally) in the bush for days. My arms will have scars since I did not have long sleeves on. Now we were on a narrow path heading UP. And UP. View time – Can see almost all of France from here so it was a good spot for lunch. I was starving. Now we get to do the ridge walk. This is a part in the guide book that has a bright orange exclamation mark beside it. I didn’t read this far last night. I should have. I think Haystacks in England was easier. Out of water now and the sun is hot. Each step had to be plotted and carefully placed and then poles adjusted so they wouldn’t slip off the jagged limestone. This seemed to go on and on. Same as last year – every time I thought we should be done another ridge came into view. I was getting sick of the fantastic view. All it made me think of was St Remy was way down there and we were still way up here. Finally we walked across a plateau for 45 minutes and we were able to descend. The sign said 57 minutes to St Remy. It took us 1 hour 20 min. My knees were giving up. It was a steady descent through woods – we’re both burnt by now so we appreciated the shade. Finally we got to the hotel. No restaurant here but you can get cold drinks. I swallowed a coke in record time. Bed – pillows under knees. Can’t stand up for an hour then finally I creak to the shower. We had to walk to dinner but thank goodness that whole part took only 2000 steps. The day’s total is 30,009. Tomorrow is supposed to be easier. And I thought I’d have nothing to rant about this trip!
Sep 22 From St Remy to Les Baux
Okay, anyone I know could have done this walk today. It was the sauntering, take a couple of pics, stop for tea from the backpack kind of day. We did ascend but it was slow and steady. In fact this was such a tranquil walk that we had only one mule stop. That’s when I refuse to go uphill or downhill until Ross proves beyond any doubt that we are on the right path. The other interesting thing about today was the number of hunters we saw on the hills. We’re not sure what they were hunting as long as it wasn’t us. We did hear rifle shots that made us fell like ducking. When we did stop outside of Les Baux for tea I’d forgotten we’d packed these wonderful pastries called Sancristian. I’ll have to take a photo of these and try to make them at home. We got to our hotel right at 12 (way ahead of schedule for us). Our room was ready and it has quite the scenic view. For 2 days I’ve been taking photos of a castle on a hill using the telephoto lens. Well we are right beside it and overlook the village’s main street. Later I went down and bought the shirt I could see from our window. Caught up on paperwork until dinner time. Total of 18,292 steps. Reasonable eh!
Sep 23 Loop Hike from Les Baux
Today we were woken at 7 am by a delivery group who must have been practising for the French version of Stomp. Right outside our window the guys were heaving empty metal kegs into a metal lined pick-up truck. Then they threw the metal dolly in which bounced off the ten kegs. This continued for half an hour so we had an earlier breakfast than planned. Then we headed out for loop hike of 4.5 hours. After a few wrong turns to start the day we passed through some picturesque laneways showing off some amazing villas and gardens. We have tons of pics of olive groves now and lots of plane trees. I must be missing our dogs because I seem to be taking photos of every dog I see. The walk was easy all the way to Mausanne. In the middle of town we had a picnic in the town square (after an espresso stop). The weather has been warm and dry for all our walks but today we actually got very hot and the only way back to Les Baux was up. It seemed longer than it was because the heat zapped all energy. As soon as we got back I soaked in the nice deep tub. It’s a deep tub but only 1 meter long. No pics there. Dinner was another food fest. This hotel has had the best food so far – one more night to go before we head back to Paris. 22,580 steps
Sep 24 Les Baux to Arles
At breakfast we talked with 4 English ladies who were doing the same route only they were one day behind us. We laughed a lot about the different places where things were a little hairy like the bush-whacking, all the Ups and the ridge walking. Apparently the guy who wrote the book of directions is guiding a tour one day behind them. I’m sure they’ll pass on our observations when he gets to Les Baux tonight. Our walk had only one catch – well two really. We could not find a hairpin turn and just decided to follow some red and white markers. Turned out as needed but we’d wasted 40 minutes re-pacing our measurements and no pins were found. The other problem only concerned me and my diarrhea. Quite a few bush stops for me. Thank goodness there aren’t a lot of hikers on these trails. We arrived at our taxi place an hour and a half ahead of time. There were a group of boy scouts there who were heading the way we had just come. It was fun trying to talk broken French and English to each other. We played gin rummy (I won) until the taxi came and then it was a 20 minute drive (12 km) to Arles. After a long, long hot shower we went out for espresso over by the Roman Colluseum. Dinner was another huge dish but at least it was just one plate each instead of appie, entrée and dessert. Just pack now and early to bed since we catch a train at 7:30 am and supposedly it’s only a 10 min walk away. 28,000 steps today. Not even close to working off all the croissants and baguettes.
Sep 25 Sunday
We left the hotel at 7 and got the train to Paris. This one made about 7 stops along the way so not as fast as getting to Avignon. We trudged our bags to the Marriott Rive Gauche and what a plush place. Super soft bed, fluffy duvet, elevators! Quite spoiled now. After a quick nap we went off to Pigalle area looking for stuff for our Gourmet dinner in Nov with the theme Moulin Rouge. Then we walked to Galleries Lafayette. But it’s Sunday. Regular shopping is closed on Sundays. Ross was pointing out toy stores and clothing and shoe stores and saying “oh, it’s closed”. Somehow the tone of his gleeful voice didn’t quite match the words. We tried to get on the internet but we haven’t had any luck since midweek. I have probably tampered with something and not connect. Time for a bath in a regular sized tub and then tomorrow I’m having espresso delivered to the room – just because I can! 15,279 steps -mostly through Paris. The whole trip I’ve been silently feeling really smug because I have a new suitcase that has 4 wheels so it can spin and it’s really easy to direct and move around. Ross has the 2 wheeled duffle. About a block from the Marriott I was gloating to myself about what a great purchase and ha ha Ross when I rolled over some florist raffia that completely jammed up 2 of my wheels. Now I had to roll the same way as Ross. When we got to the room I was trying to see if I could log on to the computer and Ross was busy using his fingernail clippers to try and fix my wheels. He did. What a sweet guy – glad he can’t read minds.
Sep 26 Monday
Flights were long and connection in Montreal short – very short. Bags made it though. 24 hour day! Jodi picked us up and we caught up on the news. Dogs were very happy to see us.

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