Provence - September 2010

The railings are at the edge of the viewing area adjacent to the cross. Looking down the south face of the mountain it's an almost sheer 500m drop!

Looking back down from about halfway up.

Taken from the balcony of our hotel

Looking down from the cross

Ermitage de Saint Ser, Prieuré de Sainte Victoire. Situated just below the cross at the top of the Sainte Victoire ridge, the chapel was built on the site where, in AD 483, the hermit St. Servin was massacred by the Visigoths. The sanctuary was dedicated January 5, 1001 by Amalric, Bishop of Aix. Repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt over the centuries, the building was crushed in 1993 by a rockslide caused by erosion following the fire on the Sainte Victoire mountain in 1989. Reconstruction was undertaken in 2000 and the new building was inaugurated May 27, 2001 in the presence of the Archbishop of Aix-en- Provence. Work was still going on while we were there and I couldn't see any way the workmen could have got to work other than by walking up the mountain as we had done. I wish I had asked them!

Unfortunately no swimming as this lake provides drinking water for the area.

The start and end point of our walk up Mont Sainte Victoire to the Croix de Provence. We had to descend the same way we went up as we had the car in the carpark here.

Graffiti in car park at Le barrage de Bimont

Looking norrth from our Buddhist centre near Trets.