Sisteroun
Moun endré!
lou rou, lou capeiroun
E la clau de Prouvènço!
(Sisteron, my home! The rock, the hood, and the key of Provence!)
- Frédéric Mistral, La Reine Jeanne
Someone told me the trail was going to get easier after Sisteron. Well they were wrong! They should have said after Peipin. (I hope.) And GR definitely stands for "Go Round" on this stage: from Sisteron to Peipin along the highway by the river is seven kilometres, and flat. From Sisteron to Peipin on the GR 653D is 14 kilometres, with a climb of 600 metres up and 600 metres down!
One cannot walk along the highway. I heard from another pilgrim that it was possible to walk along a small service road beside the railway tracks - but when I met Sylvie, my hostess in Peipin, back at L'Asphodele in Venterol, I mentioned this to her and she gave me a gravely disappointed look. "Such beautiful landscapes - and you want to walk along the railroad tracks?"
So I headed out on the GR trail: I couldn't disappoint my hostess! 😂
Besides, I felt I was going to miss the mountains; so I didn't mind going up one more. It was a cold, windy morning, and I put on double layers of everything: two shirts, leggings under my trousers. Jacket, hat and gloves. Then I left my pretty little house at the top end of Sisteron and walked down the steps into town.
It was market day in Sisteron. I couldn't buy fruit and vegetables, or flowers, but I did buy a sticky, chocolatey bun from the boulangerie. I was tempted to eat it right there, with a second cup of coffee, but I had only walked two hundred metres so I figured I'd better save it for later - to eat at the top of the mountain.
And I was certainly ready for it by the time I got to the Pas de Peipin, a thousand metres above sea level. In between the trees I glimpsed an amazing view all the way back to the snow-capped peaks of the Alps! But it was too windy to stop up there, so I waited until I was part way down the other side to have my picnic in the woods.
The path up was peaceful and pleasant, but the descent from the pass on a steep, rocky road took some time... sometimes it can be harder to walk downhill than uphill! But eventually Peipin came into view.
The name Peipin suggests a cute little hobbit village, where I had been planning to stop for a hot drink or maybe a beer; but at two o'clock on a Saturday afternoon there was nothing open in the town, so I sat on the steps of the Mairie and called Sylvie to ask if it wasn't too early to come over. She said she would come and pick me up right away, and soon I was sitting at the kitchen table over a nice hot cup of tea.
Sylvie and Alain had other house guests, too. We ladies sat chatting around the table over tea while Alain worked on a hand-painted "stamp" for my pilgrim credential!
I changed into what is normally my nightdress and put all the rest of my clothes into the washing machine. Hand-washing is fine, but it's nice to give everything a real wash in the machine at least once a week! I wrote up this account while waiting for the washing machine to do its job, as Sylvie and her friends made a cake and prepared dinner.
Sisteron - Peipin 14 km
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