Mont Ventoux

My Dad had this dream of walking to the top of the Mont Ventoux. THE mountain of Provence with a summit at some 1912m.

After some debate, multiple planning and re-planning, we decided to go for it today. We being Wolfram, Yann, my Dad and I.

Challenge #1 was to find the best hike. Without internet and with useless travel guides (my favourite being the Lonely Planet telling you there are great hikes, just stop at any tourist information office and you can get a map!), this turned out a bit more difficult to plan. Yann used his phone to get us a map of the hiking trails so we would know where to go and how many kilometers we were talking.

Of course once in my parents’ car, the first map that I found in the door was the IGN map of the area covering the Mont Ventoux. All this time we had a map in the car!

We parked the car at Chalet Reynard and walked the 5.4km to the summit. Slowly but surely. In 2 hours we were there. It was tough because of the steep slope in several places, but not that hard as there was a clear trail (unlike in Gorges du Verdon where you really have to climb).

My Dad in action in the last hundred meters to the summit

Temperature dropped quite a bit but prepared as we were we had jeans and sweaters with us. Luckily for us, this year the temperature at the summit was around 12 (it is said it can be negative or close to zero even in July-August).

From the summit there is a great view on the Alps, the Luberon and the valleys around. Unfortunately it was blurred so no great pictures, rather pretty blue and far away, sadly.

Still a great feeling of achievement to stand up there (even if we could have simply driven). Next vacation: Mont Blanc, Kilimanjaro or Everest?