Hiking Le Chamatte

Tuesday 22 May 2012

Thankfully Tim woke me up this morning - otherwise I would have been late for class.  We finished discussing Becoming Roman and got a few more chapters accomplished in The Discovery of France.  Not bad for what was supposed to be our free day.  Our free day came earlier than planned, as the weather was not the most cooperative for touring the Gorges of Verdon, so we swapped a few things around with the hope for better weather later in the week.

Following class, several of us grabbed lunch at the local resturant, named Le Chamatte after the mountain, and then we got ready to go for a hike up the mountain near Vergons.  Dr. O'Brien and Michel lead the way.

Heading up the mountain.  The village of Vergons is in the background.

Marker for Paul Simon

Our first stop along the way was at a memorial dedicated to a man named Paul Simon.  He was shot by the Germans in June 1944 at this location, as he was hiding outside of town when they came through the area during WWII.  It is unsure why he was there in the first place.  Perhaps he was part of the Resistance, perhaps he had other reasons.

Me with a view of the valley

A view of the village of Vergons

From this point, some in our group turned back to town, while the rest of us continued onward and upward.  Our destination was a hunting shack located about a third of the way up the mountain.

So many amazing views were to be had as we continued onward and upward.

David and Bryce making the final approach

It was such a great feeling to reach the hunting shack and see how small Vergons was below.  Dr. O'Brien had fun showing us the rustic outhouse (see picture below).  You know you are in a remote location when the "house" part of the outhouse is nonexistant!

The best view of them all

While we were tinkering around Bryce and David went to see where the rock-slide happened.  Then the three of us descended much quicker than it too us to make the climb.  We wanted to see Notre-Dame-de Valvert and I wanted to find a geocache - more on that adventure in my next post. :)

View of the mountain

Looking back up at the mountain, it is amazing to think how far up we really were.  I wish I could point it out to you in the photograph, but I really have no idea where we were :)

For more pictures go here.