Four months to One Week

So I am heading back to the US in one week after having been in the South of France for almost 4 months. This experience has truly helped me to grow on a personal, educational, and professional level. I have been confronted with many a difficulty but have been able to adjust to the adversity. It hasn't always been easy nor fun but I can truly say that this experience was invaluable to my development.

One of my favorite things about Aix-en-Provence is Mount Sainte Victoire. As I mentioned in a previous entry, I've hiked the mountain once before. Since then I have hiked up to the Croix de Provence one other time. But more recently three of my friends (Jessica, Mason and Chad) and I attempted to hike up to the ridgeline and across to the Croix. Let's just say we ran into some adverse weather conditions.

We arrived to the last village on the southern route to Sainte Victoire, Puyloubier. From there we headed up the nearest "path" to the top of the ridgeline. Things didn't go exactly as planned from the beginning. We couldn't exactly find the proper trail head and did some strategic navigating through thorny bushes and such until after 50 minutes we came across the red and white trail marker we had been longing for.

Before we started hiking we could see that the top of the mountain was covered in a dense fog and whiteness. We assumed there was some fresh powder strewn across the trail but nothing like we would encounter.

As we continued to ascend the snow became thicker and thicker. We weren't exactly prepared for the conditions that we found near the top of the mountain. A couple of times we found ourselves looking for the proper trail which helped us to make the decision to turn around that we finally made in the end.

It was certainly the most intelligent decision as Mason and Jessica were sporting tennis shoes that had become saturated from our initial search for the trail. But before we headed back down the mountain (which we did in 40 minutes to catch the bus back to Aix), we had a hot meal of panini's and thanks to Chad, hot chocolate.

I will absolutely miss the beauty of Sainte Victoire when I return to the US but it has definitely strengthened the love that I have for the outdoors ten-fold.

Here are some photos from our trek: