Quite a lot of road walking today as I continue east towards Le Thoronet and it’s Abbey, a few kilometers outside town.
I left Brignoles going north towards Le Val on the relatively busy D554. Just before Le Val I turned east. We had driven this way last night and I thought I would be walking along paths in the Valley, through the vineyards. Unfortunately the path followed a small road with houses on either side and very limited traffic and nothing particular to see.
The road changed to a sandy, rocky dirt path through a forest for 8-9 kms. At times the paths were very wide, and at times it was flooded, but also here there wasn’t very much to see. I did however meet a through walker, walking from Rome to Santiago, in one go! We chatted for a few minutes and went in each our direction.
After the forest I walked across the valley with many vineyards towards Carces.
My wife had parked in Carces and walked to meet me. We met on the outskirts of the town in a pleasant residential area with views along the valley. We walked through town, passing a number of paintings on house fronts depicting how life could have been centuries ago. We took a break at a bar with a couple of other walkers and a few beer happy cyclists.
The afternoon was significantly more pleasant than the morning. Much of the afternoon was spent walking next to the L’Argens river/Ste. Croix canal, which pretty much run next to each other. I walked through a mixture of forest and vineyards. I passed through the Chateau St. Croix vineyard, and by chance drank one of their wines at dinner.
Just before Les Févriers I had to make a choice of climbing 100m up to the Abbey or stay on a small road that would take me directly to the town. Although it was fairly warm, and I’d already walked 26kms, I decided to take the hike up the hill to the Abbaye de Thoronet.
Before I reached the Abbaye, I passed by a Monastery, and decided to go in and have a look at what turned out to be a nice and simple church. I decided against visiting the Abbey, which we have visited previously in the 90’s, and continued back downhill towards Le Thoronet.
I walked around the village and took a drink at a local bar, watching the school kids from the school next door going home for the weekend.
