May 10 2019 Mont Ventoux

Mont Ventoux is visible from nearly everywhere we travel in the Vaucluse. We've been planning to go up to the top for the past few weeks, but the weather hasn't allowed it. Weather forecasts always show winds and low temperatures (30s and 40s) for daily highs. When we first arrived, there was still snow on its peak. Then there's the problem of clouds and rain. Often the top of Ventoux is invisible due to cloud cover. But today is the day! Low wind, sun until noon, no clouds, and temperatures in the 50s. We're going to ascend Mt. Ventoux.

In distance, the top is only 40 km away, but in time, it's nearly an hour drive. But what  a spectacular hour once we start our ascent. The views over the Vaucluse are expansive.

As we get nearer the top, we begin to see views over the other side. We drove up from west to east, passing through Le Barroux and Malaucène, towns we've already visited.

Thankfully, Dave is a fearless driver since there were rarely guardrails and looking down was scarey. It's a steep drop off with trees and brush and rocks if you go off the road. Luckily, this is a good road with dividing line and a bike lane.

Bike lane? If you watch the Tour de France bicycle race, Mont Ventoux is often a featured mountain category climb. It is not one of the stages this year, but was on last year's tour. (Another reason we chose this area - although we didn't expect to be able to see Mont Ventoux from our house!) But driving up the Mont, you'd swear riders were practicing for the Tour. There were more bicyclists than cars on the road. And they all had the gear of a professional cyclist. (Not that that's a clue, as any cyclist we've seen has had the gear.)

One or two stops along the way up. The day couldn't have been better. High 60s, warm sun, almost no wind. Perfect!

As we neared the top, we saw signs that the top was closed and the road was only open to the ski resort on top of Mont Serein, at 1,437 meters (about 4500 feet - Mont Ventoux is 1912 meters - about 6000 feet).

We drove a km down the road to a camping resort and found a 10 minute walk to a panoramic view.

While the others did the easy walk, I checked out the boutique and bought a gift and some postcards. In talking to the folks behind the desk, they told me it is really slow now and should be really busy by now. They blamed the unusual weather this year. I didn't get a chance to ask them about whether they would incur losses due to the fact that the Tour de France doesn't climb Mont Ventoux this year. Dang. I should have asked.

We followed the same road down that we took up, but made a turn at the bottom to head for Bedouin. This town was busy, but we couldn't fathom why. To get to Bedouin, we traveled over the Col de la Madeleine, which was also busy with bikers. We saw several in the parking lot in the center of Bedouin, so perhaps they were the ones who filled the parking lot. We drove up the hill of to the old town, checking out the narrow streets and the town castle before driving down and on to our next town, Crillon le Brave.

We wondered what was brave about Crillon. He was a real person, Louis des Balbes de Berton Crillon, known as le brave des braves (the bravest of the brave).  And he was a swashbuckling military man according to his Wikipedia article who participated in the siege of Menèrbes in the Wars of Religion - on the Catholic side. He seemed to often be in trouble with the law, but managed to be forgiven for his brave exploits.

Today, Crillon has a lot of second homes and is nicely kept up. Its castle with newly added crenelations is privately owned and there is a church, of course. A fancy hotel provides upscale rooms in a refurbished old mansion. The view of Mont Ventoux is expansive from here and a good way to finish our tour of Mont Ventoux.

We arrived home for a late lunch on the patio. First time we've had both the weather and the time to do that. In the afternoon, while I wrote on the patio, Dave and Janis took a 10 km (6 mi) hike around Sarrians. It was flat enough that I could have done it in my chariot which was a welcome change from the last "easy" hike that had 190 meters (600 feet) of elevation over rough ground.

We sat a long time at aperos this afternoon, enjoying the sun and warmth of the day. Eating French style at 9 pm, we had chicken and salad followed by dessert of bread pudding with whiskey sauce after which we all fell into bed.