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 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