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, 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 

Italy to Santiago II Part 1: Via Domitia Day 32 Saint-Martin-de-Castillon - Pont Julien

Dans la société future, tous les châteaux seront des hôpitaux, tous les murs seront abattus, et tous le chemins traces au cordeau

(In the society of the future, all castles will be hospitals, all walls will be knocked down, and all paths will be perfectly straight)

- Marcel Pagnol, quoting his revolutionary father, in La gloire de mon père (1957)

Up early, I made myself a cup of tea and sat in bed reading a comic book - or illustrated novel, if you prefer: an adaptation of Marcel Pagnol's 1957 autobiographical novel La gloire de mon père. Reading is an excellent, and painless, way to improve my French! Just after 7:30 my "studies" were interrupted by a message from Joana saying she had left me a breakfast tray at the bottom of the stairs. I went down to retrieve it, and what a breakfast!! Eggs from her own chickens, scrambled with onions and herbs; toast with butter and a selection of homemade jams; yogurt; apple sauce and apple juice; homemade cake; and grapes from the family's own vineyard. And Joana didn't even charge me for it; that was her way of giving me a pilgrim discount 😁. I started working on the breakfast tray while brewing coffee with the coffee maker in my room, and though it took me a long time and a lot of effort, I managed to demolish the lot!

I packed up and went downstairs and out into the garden, where a peacock was parading in front of the house - until an over-enthusiastic spaniel chased it away. The spaniel then decided to play with me, getting paw prints all over my trousers... well, that probably won't be all the dirt they see today! 😄

Joana came out to say goodbye and give me a sticker for my pilgrim credential - seeing as she didn't have a stamp. Or rather, she did, but the ink had dried out... in any case, the sticker was just the right size. I believe it was meant to be a label for her jars of jam.

I said goodbye and rolled on down the hill to rejoin the GR trail right where it joins the Véloroute du Calavon, the cycling track that follows the Calavon River. I followed this for five and a half kilometres: an easy start to the day! Cycling paths are a good way to get some kilometres behind you without too much effort, as the pavement is even and flat so you don't have to watch where you put your feet and can speed along. I could have continued another four and a half kilometres along the cycling track and gone directly to Apt - a good option if you find yourself walking this route in bad weather, or have planned a particularly long stage - but I followed the GR 653D and turned onto a rather overgrown path, climbing through the woods to Saignon. It was worth the climb! 

The cycling path

The scenery

Saignon seen from below

The name Saignon comes from signum, to sign or signal, and in fact the 30-metre-high natural tower of rock rising out of on the northern flank of the Luberon has been used since ancient times as a natural observation and signalling tower. Saignon was reinforced as a fortess with three separate castles. 

Aerial view of Saignon, from Wikipedia 

Olive oil press dug into the rock, used until WW II

A man working on his roof right under the tower of rock

The trail descended from Saignon back into the valley along a path through the woods that must have been important at one time, because it had been paved with cobblestones, though they were now so dislocated and uneven they were more of a hindrance than a help to ambulation; it was quite a relief to get back onto the modern paved road leading into the town of Apt. 

With a population of ten thousand, Apt is the largest town in the Luberon area. It was at one time the chief town of the Gallic tribe of the Vulgientes; destroyed by the Romans around 125 BC, the town was restored by Julius Caesar, who conferred upon it the title Apta Julia. 

That explains why the Roman bridge right next to my accommodation is referred to as the Pont Julien. It's about 8 kilometres from Apt, so I continued on through the town centre, stopping only at a bakery to buy a sandwich for my lunch, and out of the other end of the town along the véloroute, which here follows the course of a disused and dismantled railway line. The tourist information office is in what used to be the train station, but when I got there, it had just closed. I followed the disused railway line/cycling track over a 200-metre-long viaduct; the railway line effectively gets you out of town and back into the countryside without too much contact with the outlying districts and semi-industrial zones. I went down off the viaduct at the earliest opportunity to pay a visit to Bio Luberon, a massive organic food store with a vast selection of goods. I stuffed my backpack, walking poles and jacket into a shopping cart, abandoned the whole thing in the vegetable aisle and spent a good amount of time just looking around the store. I eventually found a few useful things to add to my picnic lunch, my dinner at my Airbnb, and my supplies for future dietary emergencies, though on the whole there is a good deal more food available on this part of the trail than there was in the Alps!

The bakery 

The viaduct 

A highly specialised garage that only repairs this type of car

Bio Luberon

I took my supplies a little further off the trail to the Plan d'Eau d'Apt, an artificial lake with a grassy park around it, where I sat on a bench by the water to eat my pan bagnat: a "soggy sandwich" traditionally found in the area around Nice, made with tuna, hard-boiled egg, mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato and olives. Basically, a Niçoise salad in a bun! For dessert I had sheep's milk yogurt with chestnut purée, so it was quite the gourmet picnic!

Right beside the lake is the Maison Boucheyronne, a hostel where I had enquired about accommodations; but it was full up for the week, and anyway it was too early to stop, so I carried on for another eight kilometres to an Airbnb I had found right next to the Roman bridge. I am Nadine' first customer! She only recently converted into an Airbnb what used to be her studio and exhibition space - Nadine is a sculptor, and her daughter is a painter; many of their works are still on display (and for sale) in the room. 

A nosy neighbour

As soon as I had checked in, I left my backpack and walked another few hundred metres down the cycling path to watch the sun set over the two thousand year old Pont Julien. 

The perfect ending to another perfect day on the Via Domitia! 

Saint-Martin-de-Castillon - Pont Julien 24 km