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Gorges du Toulourenc

— Walking a beautiful gorge in the Vaucluse in the shadow of Mont Ventoux…”

• Location: Veaux, near Malaucène, Vaucluse
• Length: 10km
• Difficulty: scrambling, some deep water, some steep slopes

This walk formed part of our holiday Grandes vacances 2009: South of France

The day had long since transformed itself from a little wander up a sparkling streambed to an increasingly technical assault on deep water and slippery rock walls.

We’d left the picnickers behind and we’d passed tired, vexed faces coming the other way, each of them looking like soldiers returning from the front.

Then, in the third or fourth section of chest-high water I remembered my wallet was still in my pocket.

Everything was rising. The water, the rocks and the sun highest of all! I felt my neck burning and I saw J’s poor arms were headed the same way.

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Gorges du Toulourenc

In the shadow of the Mont Ventoux, we picked our way up the river Toulourenc and then back by the vertiginous slopes of the GR91.

After who knows how long, we finally spotted the GR91 running down the left bank. Hoisting ourselves up and onto it – a bit prematurely, as far as the map was concerned, but we wanted to dry off – we took a breather then set off on this long thread of nicely surfaced terra firma, quietly relieved to find the oppressive canyon was now at our feet rather than towering above us.

Larger map of this route at GoogleMaps

Almost as soon as we had dried off, we started to dry out. With Mont Ventoux bald and implacable and high off to our left, we toiled up the vertiginous slopes of the valley. The heat shortened our breath even as the panoramas lengthened.

Of course, as soon as I was sure I had the car in sight – still several kilometres away down by the valley meadow – I breathed deeply and finally understood this rando for what it was: one of the highlights of our holiday.