Italy to Santiago II Part 1: Via Domitia Day 34 Robion - Eygalières

I am totally present in my world when I walk, fully immersed, my edges blending with the edges of everything around me so that I am no longer separate from them. When I walk, I belong.

- Brenda Williams, Walking home, published in The Walker Within (2000)

It has taken me three days to walk past the Luberon: a long, low massif, extending for 60 kilometres from east to west, with a width of five kilometres and a maximum altitude of only 1125 metres. I have walked along its base on the northern side, through the valley of the Calavon, temporarily abandoning the Durance,  which flows along the southern side of the massif.

The Luberon is characterised primarily by rounded, rolling slopes, but at its western end, the massif terminates in the jagged, rocky cliffs that tower above Robion. 

Unlike my companions at the hostel Gíte l'Escanson, who were heading up onto the mountain to hike, I followed a nice flat cycling route across the valley to Taillades. I didn't go out of my way to visit the old part of the village, which was some way off my route and higher up, but I did walk past a beautiful old mill with a fully operational waterwheel, constructed in 1859 to grind madder for red dye.

I walked beside the canal that powered the mill and followed the cycling route to Cavaillon, where I got back onto the GR 653D, having left it yesterday to detour to the hostel in Robion. There wasn't much going on in the old centre of Cavaillon on a Sunday morning; the cathedral was shut, and so were all the local businesses. 

Cavaillon's most interesting monument is a Roman triumphal arch, dating back to the first century of the Christian era; there are some restaurants and cafés in the square in front of it. But the rest of the town centre seemed somewhat abandoned and run down, with a lot of vacant storefronts and very few people about; I discovered why when I continued along the trail and passed through a thriving but ugly and unwalkable district of big box stores and giant supermarkets, with a McDonald's and - walkers take note - a Decathlon store. I didn't fancy a burger, and  my gear is all doing fine, so I kept going, making my way across a busy roundabout and crossing a long bridge over the Durance - there it is again! Having grown to maturity, a broad, slow river with plenty of bends and islands. 

The bridge became a viaduct taking me over the railway tracks and a highway to a small road, which I walked down all the way to Orgon. When I was almost there I discovered that there are some small differences between the GPS tracks that I loaded into different applications: one that I downloaded from the web site of the Amis de Saint-Jacques, which followed the road here, and the official track of the GR 653D downloaded from GR-Infos, which had followed the river instead of the road. That would probably have been more scenic! In any case, I reached Orgon and took some time to look around the village, then sat down on a bench for a picnic consisting of Comte cheese, an apple, and a Snickers ice cream bar (my favourite!) from a convenience store.

I didn't walk up to the ruins of the Templar castle at the top of the town, or the sanctuary even higher up, but continued down the road towards my destination for the day. Orgon marks the start of a new mountain chain, the Alpilles, meaning "little Alps", and I noted the change in the landscape. In fact, I found it felt familiar: I walked through similar territory just over to the south of the Alpilles in 2017. In fact, I had an adventurous day, one of the most memorable on my previous walk from Italy to Santiago, just over on the other side of those hills! The rocky landscape, pine trees and aromatic undergrowth brought back memories of that day; even the names of the towns were similar: in 2017 I passed through Eyguières, whereas today I stopped in Eygalières. On both occasions the similarity of the names annoyed me, confusing me in my search for accommodations! 

I straightened out a bend in the GR 653D trail by walking along a road, and discovered I was by no means the first to do so; in fact, so many people had walked beside the road that there was a footpath, clearly much-used, in the grass beside it, complete with GR trail markings. Then the trail left the paved road to follow a gravel road through the pine groves, vineyards and olive trees. 

After what seemed like a very long time, the gravel road came out onto the paved road into Eygalières, and here I took a brief detour to the 12th-century chapel of Sainte-Sixte.  I sat for a while in the portico, sheltered from the wind; the chapel glowed bright yellow in the late afternoon sun.

From the chapel, the good people of Eygalières have marked out a trail through the trees to keep pilgrims from walking on the road; a very nice idea, but it took me to the top end of the town, when my accommodation was at the bottom. It was good to walk through the town centre, though, because there was a vide-grenier going on: a flea market, special edition for the November 1st holiday, and there were plenty of people strolling about the town centre and sitting in the sun outside the cafés. 

I did the same, sitting with a beer outside the Café de la Place, enjoying the sunshine until my glass was empty and my table was no longer in the sun. Then I paid up and headed for my Airbnb room, in Vanessa's apartment near the town centre. I have a small room with a single bed, though she also rents a larger room with a double bed; the bathroom and kitchen are shared. 

I'm off to the shared kitchen to heat up my Thsi noodle soup!

Robion - Eygalières 26.5 km

Italy to Santiago II Part 1: Via Domitia Day 33 Pont Julien - Robion

Partir, donc. Mais si possible à pied. Parce que au lieu de traverser les choses on les côtoie. Parce que au lieu de croiser les gens on les accompagne. Parce que au lieu de filer à travers le pays on file son chemin, au pas à pas, comme l'araignée tisse sa toile.

(Set off, then. On foot, if possible. So that instead of moving through things, you walk alongside them. So that instead of crossing paths with people, you walk with them. So that instead of rushing across the country you spin your path, like a spider spinning its web.)

- Jacques Lanzmann, Marches et rêves (1988)

A chilly autumn morning. When I set off along the cycling path to Pont Julien, the Roman bridge was shrouded in the mist rising from the Cavalon river. I crossed over the bridge and continued on a path through the vineyards that eventually rejoined the cycling track. 

The Véloroute continued to follow the disused railway line, and in less than an hour I reached the former railway station of Bonnieux, now home to a café and an exhibition space specialising in contemporary African artists. While waiting for the museum to open, I sat in the café with a drink that I didn't really need, having only just demolished another impressive breakfast tray; but it turned out to be the only cost involved in the stop, as admission to the museum was free for the weekend - the last before the close of the exhibition. The theme of the exhibition was the colour blue - my favourite!

Even better than the exhibition is the gift shop at Fondation Blachère, featuring a vast selection of African handcrafts - though I couldn't buy anything; my backpack is already heavy enough!

I continued along the Véloroute, crossing paths with several cyclists on this sunny Saturday morning. Less than an hour's walk down the cycling track, I came to the Ubac Dolmen, a 5000-year-old burial chamber that was discovered in 1994, when the river Calavon flooded and cut away at its banks. In 2014 the Dolmen was dismantled and moved, stone by stone, to its current location 500 metres away from its original site, where it is safe from the erosion caused by the river. The tomb contained the remains of about fifty individuals; it was abandoned around 2200 B.C. and gradually covered over with silt from the river. 

Panel explaining the construction of the Dolmen

At the Dolmen, the GR path left the cycling track, passing by a stonemason's home and climbing part of the way up the hillside on a gravel road. The path continued through the forest along the side of the hill, with views of the limestone cliffs on the other side of the valley, before descending back into the vineyards at the bottom of the valley.

I took a brief detour to the village I could see across the valley, Beaumettes. I wanted to take a closer look at the house I could see squeezed up against the cliff, set right in under a ledge of rock. 

House embedded in the cliff

Restaurant "Domitia"

I continued out of Beaumettes toward a candied fruit factory that advertised tours and a factory outlet shop; it was closed, so I returned to the cycling track and walked another hour or so through the lavender fields to Castellet. The smell of food wafted toward me as I approached the town, reminding me that it was lunch time. I soon found out where the enticing scents were coming from: Les Halles de Coustellet, a food fair right on the cycling track with booths offering everything from burgers to Thai noodles, Lebanese kebabs and boiled octopus tentacles! I settled for a vegetarian pokè bowl, which seemed to be the healthiest choice. Continuing with this healthy food policy, I went slightly out of my way to visit the local organic food store - which I discovered to be an exact replica of the one I visited yesterday! 😅 There must be a chain of them.

Healthy lunch!

I continued along the GR 653D / cycling track until it met the GR 6, then turned down that route to reach the centre of Robion, where there is a reasonably priced hostel. And it's full up tonight! The others are a group of nine hikers from Grenoble, here for five days of hiking on Mount Luberon, and another woman independent of the group, with whom I am sharing a room. I'm used to being the only one in the hostel, and being able to spread my stuff around... tonight I had to get used to the idea of sharing the space and keeping all my things together 😅

Pont Julien - Robion 21.5 km