2021 - July - Hiking in Luberon Day 1, Hike from Apt to Bonnieux

We are doing well. Thank you for asking. However, during our hike today, we ourselves had doubts about whether we could continue to tolerate the heat. But more on that later.

As you may know, we are on a hiking trip through the Luberon. This is located in southern France and most people surely know exactly where we are when I say that we are traveling through Provence.

We started in Apt. The town itself is not noteworthy in my opinion, but we were lucky. Because exactly on the day of our arrival, there was a small music event from 6pm called 'La Fete des Terrasses'. Apparently, music groups kept appearing spontaneously and inspired people to sing along and dance. It was a great atmosphere! After a night in the hotel, we finally started.

Our hiking trip is organized in such a way that our luggage is transported from place to place and therefore from hotel to hotel. So, we only need a day backpack for our tours.

Our very first hike was one of the longest. It went from Apt to Bonnieux. This gives you a nice impression of the landscape here. The climate in Provence is rather dry and sunny, and there are apparently over 300 sunny days a year. Nevertheless, or maybe precisely because of that, there is a lot of agriculture. We walked past many oat fields, large areas of vineyards, and of course lavender fields. A dream!

But then came our personal Death Valley: a valley where the air was almost stagnant. It felt like 50°C here. We were surrounded by interesting ochre cliffs. These were formed by deposits from a time when the land was still covered with water. The distinctive ochre-colored sand was then created through iron oxidation. There are even larger areas of it in Luberon. In addition to that, there are also limestone cliffs. Probably because of this landscape shape and the lack of air circulation, it suddenly became incredibly hot there. And to match that, there was even a bone on the path!

Fortunately, we could feel the Master (Meister) otherwise. Who is the Master? I'm talking about the Mistral (etymologically Master). A cold fall wind that likes to blow here. We loved the Master!

So, you see, the actual 31°C that we had today can feel very different.

At the end of our hike, my watch showed 33,147 steps, which is probably around 23 km. In any case, we were very happy to have arrived at our beautiful accommodation. There were cold drinks and even a pool.

And then there was this sunset, what a dream!