Italy to Santiago II Part 1: Via Domitia Day 27 Peipin - Peyruis

La grande affaire et la seule qu'on doive avoir, c'est de vivre heureux 

- Voltaire (1722)

After a cheerful dinner together at Sylvie and Alain's place, we all slept very well and nobody snored - luckily, seeing as their home, which looks like it might originally have been a big barn, is an open-space plan; I was sharing what would have been the hayloft with their friend Jacqueline. She lives on the tropical island of Le Réunion, and feels constantly cold when she comes to France - so she walked about the house wrapped in a big blanket, and put on a thick down-filled coat to go out and smoke on the veranda 😅. We all breakfasted together, and then I was on my way. 

Setting off with Sylvie 

Sylvie walked with me for a kilometre or so, then showed me the way to continue and turned back toward home. I passed though the village of Aubignosc, where there is a boulangerie/pâtisserie that was, however,  closed for holidays; then I began to climb on a trail through the woods, crossing a series of miniature ravines with streams at the bottom, some dry and others easily forded. This pleasant and easy path took me up to the ruins of an abandoned village.

Just outside this ghost town are the ruins of a roofless chapel dedicated to Saint Anthony, which the Amis de Saint-Jacques have partially restored to make it usable as a place of worship, building pews out of the stones from the collapsed roof. 

The wind chimes above the entrance sounded a welcome, like church bells, as I entered. A couple of day hikers came in just after me, and we all sat in silence on the pews of stone. Then the husband played a recording on his phone and sang along with it: the Lord's Prayer, set to music. When we all got up to move on, he told me he is in charge of organising the music at the churches in the area. I asked him to take my photograph in the chapel. 

We all returned to the path, heading in opposite directions. In half an hour or so I was in Châteauneuf, where there was, miraculously, a bar/restaurant open! It was only a quarter past eleven, but having put the clocks back overnight, my stomach definitely thought it was a quarter past twelve. So I went into the bar and was soon demolishing a massive bowl of gnocchi al gorgonzola, with a green salad, a bière pressione and a crème caramel to finish. I saved the picnic of fruit, cheese and bread that Sylvie had given me, to eat for supper instead! 😁

It was hard to get going again with such a full stomach! When I did set off again, I found myself on a gravel road under which the paving stones of an 18th-century postal road were clearly visible. It is not certain whether the ancient Roman Via Domitia lies beneath it, but the locals seem to have assumed that it does, naming the part of the street that runs through Châteauneuf "Via Domitia".

Several bends up the road later, my route left the postal road and climbed into the woods on a broad and easy path. A steep, rocky descent slowed my progess somewhat, bringing me to a lavender field and a highway crossing, after which I climbed another hill on an equally steep and rocky path. I continued for some time through the maquis, stunted and twisted oak trees practically growing out of the rock, with beds of thyme along either side of the path.

The final descent brought me into the outskirts of Peyruis, where I abandoned the GR signage to take a small paved road directly down to my accommodation. Halte en Provence is a studio apartment attached to the owners' house, which has a bedroom with en-suite bathroom (separated from it only by a curtain) in what must originally have been their garage, plus a pretty little sitting room and kitchen in the veranda. One whole wall is made of glass, with a view over the garden to Les Pénitents des Mées, amazing rock formations towering above the village of Mées on the far side of the valley. Unfortunately my route doesn't pass through there - though I'm glad I don't have to climb up to the top of them! 

Peipin - Peyruis 21 km