Yes, this walk has been covered before,
I own up, this is a repeat. But you see, it isn't a repeat because we varied (shortened) our actual route a little bit but more significantly we did it in the spring… so if anything, it was an even more uplifting experience. The first time round, I called the post: postcard: below grand montmirail. You will remember it as if it was yesterday, I'm sure. It was a high summer perambulation described there.
This time the vines are just starting to leaf up. We set off from the point from which the banner panorama (top) was taken, from where I park the motor, up the track ahead past the trees and towards le grand montmirail rocks, top left. That road, unmade at this point, goes on to become metalled again after a few hundred metres, and joins up with the route up from the other side of Beaumes, but see below to see our route up the hill. By a slight error of navigation we are not on our preferred route at the moment I compose the snap below, but I am able thus to photograph it. It's that track coming away from the trees to the left.
…and the track then comes up to this point (above) over a number of terrace steps, negotiable only on foot or by a caterpillar tractor-type of thingey. Steep. The last terrace is topped, the hill flattens out to a more gentle slope, the terraces having given way to hillsides where there are these wonderful trees, individuals, track side mediterranean pines.
There are copses of holm oaks and pines too which help break up the worst effects of the mistral. There are also operatives further up the hill getting amongst the vines to fill in the no shows, prune, wire in etc. We decide not to go up further and pass them by as we are not actually on a GR or other designated pathway, if you see what I mean, so we take another woodside track curving round and downwards in the general direction of where we started from… down there…
Eventually the motor is espied slumbering in the shade of the pine we set off from and we see in greater detail the tantalising track that probably leads the walker to the back of the Durban domaine, a walk we will configure next time round, as this is our last day before shipping out and back to Le Royaume Uni. Note, if you will, the chapel of St Hilaire on the tree-line top right in the image above this text.
Lower down, the vines have not been hoed so are blotted with poppies, while another view further down the hill on the way back to Durban, where youngish vines have been hoed rigorously, exhibits a minor road visible climbing up the other side of the valley in the mid distance above those woods. Going to take a look at that, the next time we can.
A short walk then, not overtaxing your author too much, but uplifting the spirit again, as what it done previous in summer 2021 and now again, on this day, before the grand départ is upon us… gold star rated this walk so think on.
