Mont Sainte Victoire

Yesterday, 20 of us took a bus about 5 miles outside of Aix to Mont Sainte Victoire - the mountain Cezanne painted over 50 times. Though it's not visible everywhere in Aix because of the hills and buildings, it has caught me by surprise many times as I was walking along and it suddenly appeared around a corner.

Now, I love to be outside, but I learned a few years ago that I am not a mountain climber. I like hikes that follow nice, fairly level terrain through forests and around streams. If I'm going to climb, I want to be in a harness climbing up - not over. I went anyway - I haven't done any touristy stuff yet here and this is a popular activity in Aix. Plus it offered a day outside and some great views for an hour and a half climb each way which couldn't be so bad.

Truthfully, it wasn't that bad - I'm just not a huge fan of aerobic activities which this definitely was. The bus dropped us off not at the base of the mountain, as we were expecting, but at the base of another peak which was connected to Mont Sainte Victoire by a narrow ridge. We mounted that peak easily enough in about 45 minutes. The weather was beautiful - warm enough not to be cold, but with a cool wind that kept us from getting too hot.

Once we got across the ridge, things got steeper and slower and it took another hour and a half to get to the top (1011 m high). The whole time I knew I had to go all the way but I kept thinking, "Why do I feel the need to get to the top of this?" I already had a good view - I could have stayed where I was and have spent a great day outside. But then there's that competitive streak still in me that wanted to say I had done it - that I hadn't given up or made it easy on myself by taking four hours to do it. And it was good exercise, though I really do need to get in shape.

Erin's friend in the States who used to be a professional chef had given her a recipe for a tomato mozzarella salad using herbs that could be picked on the mountain. There's rosemary, thyme and another unidentified spice that we think is marjoram growing all along the trails. Erin and Kelly Rae picked herbs all the way up and made their salad on the top with oil and balsamic in tiny bottles, a miniature pepper mill, and tomatoes and mozzarella bought just before leaving Aix. Mix in a plastic bag, let sit for 15 minutes and enjoy. I had a taste and it was fabulous!

We spent nearly two hours at the top before a much faster hike down, picking herbs along the way, and walked out to a town 20 minutes away to catch the bus back to Aix. Though I have occasionally had those idealistic thoughts of things like, "Wouldn't it be great to climb Mt. Everest?" or "Maybe I'll try and climb in Alaska this summer" those thoughts have left me now. Yeah, the mountains are there and they would offer all the same benefits of vistas and exercise and lessons learned - but any climb like that just wouldn't be worth it to me. I'd rather go rafting... I should look into that here.