Hiking in the Drome

After but one night of rest after another hard day of work in sunny Southwood, it was time for us to hit the road again. This time the plan was to meet up with Joel and Francoise in the Drome department for a bit of hiking.

The Drome is located kind of between Provence and Lyon, the parts we visited during the weekend being part of the “Drome Provencal” – and the villages and landscapes do indeed have much in common with Provence. We were staying at a small village called Villeperdix, located above the rather impressive Gorges of Saint-May. Mathilde had managed to find a totally charming Bed and Breakfast for the ridiculous price of 30 euros per night (that same place would’ve cost at least the double in nearby Provence).

We arrived in the early afternoon, and decided to do a bit of exploration of the region, since Joel and Francoise hadn’t arrived yet. We drove down to nearby Remuzat, which is a bit bigger (passing by the dramatically perched village on Saint-May on the way, overlooking the gorges from its lofty heights). We spent a leisurely afternoon walking down its charming streets, as well as having an ice cream in one of the local cafes. It’s a pretty nice little village, but falls a bit short of the level of cuteness to be seen in some of the more famous Provencal villages.

We made it back for dinner with Joel, Francoise, and their hiking group. Great to meet everybody, and the meal was a real delight!

After a good night’s sleep, it was time to get to work. We’d signed up for a bit of an unusual hiking experience, as we were hiking with a group of disabled people. For this purpose we needed to master the Joëlette, a specially designed wheel chair for hiking. It’s a pretty impressive and practical piece of engineering actually, as it can navigate some very challenging terrain and obstacles. All this was made apparent during our morning session, when we trained in the village, taking on various obstacles and challenges (fallen tree trunks, narrow passages, steps, and the like). And boy, was it hard work...! But as we would find out in the afternoon, it was a very crucial exercise indeed.

The hike itself took us up to the hilltop next to the village. And this was REALLY hard work... I think our hike only had about 350 meters of height difference, but it felt like a hell of a lot more, pushing that Joëlette up the hills. Thankfully, my partners Bernard and Emmanuel had more experience than me, and gave me a lot of useful feedback during the day.

Towards the end of the hike I felt I nearly mastered the Joëlette. As I said before, all the training we’d had in the morning sure came in handy, as we encountered most of the obstacles in “real life” as well. I have to say it was an extremely rewarding experience, all in all. It was very good exercise, that’s for sure, but it felt nice to help people as well. I’m full in admiration for this group of people, who do this thing during their weekends and holidays, at their own expense. But I can also understand what motivates them. And no complaints about the views either, this region really is fantastically beautiful, the views over the gorges with the village of Saint-May overlooking them were particularly stunning.

We finished off a very hard but rewarding day with another extremely tasty dinner – this time we were treated to a couscous. And as always in France, the food was accompanied with some equally tasty wine (including some from Loic’s, Joel’s and Francoise’s neightbours, vineyard). I also got to taste some very tasty eau-de-vie (two different kinds, actually). Great to get to know the people a bit better as well – we felt kind of wistful leaving them the next day...

But alas, we had to go back to work, so back we had to head on the Monday. We did have a bit of time for some more touristy action on the way though, since we had all day to drive back to the Cote d’Azur. Or drive took us along the gorges again, down to Buis-les-Baronnies, which is one of the main towns in this area (known as the Baronnies). I think we were also treated to some views of Mont Ventoux on our way there, as well. Anyway, Buis-les-Baronnies is quite a charming little town, typically Provencal I would say (even though we were still in the Drome...), the highlight being the main town square with its pastel-colored houses, I suppose.

From there, we decided to pop over into Vaison-la-Romaine (which is located in the “real Provence”, in the Vaucluse department). Vaison is basically divided into two parts by the river Oueveze. There is the medieval town, dramatically perched on top of the hill-top, and the modern town, connected to the medieval town by an ancient bridge, dating all the way back to the 1st century AD.

The modern town actually has some rather impressive Roman ruins, but we decided not to visit those (after all, barely two weeks had passed since our visit to Pompeii, and Mathilde is coming back here later this summer on a school trip, so...). So off we went to the medieval town then, climbing up the cobble-stoned streets. It’s quite a charming little town, and refreshingly (and surprisingly) untainted by tourist shops and the like. We made our way all the way to the top, to the medieval castle (which was unfortunately closed to visitors).

After taking in the stunning views, we made our way back towards our car, stopping for a very tasty lunch in a small and charming eatery we found on the way. A perfect end to a very nice weekend indeed!