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)

I successfully demolished another impressive breakfast tray before setting off along the cycling path toward the Pont Julien. On this chilly autumn morning 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 before rejoining the cycling track. 

The Véloroute still follows the disused railway line, and in less than an hour I reached the former railway station of Bonnieux, now ho.e 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, after my massive breakfast; but it turned out to be the only cost associated with the stop, as admission to the museum was free for the weekend - the last before the current exhibition closes. The theme of the exhibition is 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 tbis 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 originally 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