Sainte Victoire

This weekend we focused on starting our hiking adventures.  First order was going out to the local Decathalon store (read: monster sporting good store) to get some hiking boots for each of us.  I love the stuff that I can buy at these stores but I always end up feeling empty and have a strong desire to get out of there as fast as possible.  Rampant materialism is everywhere now.

Properly attired we headed up to Sainte Victoire for our first hike.  We had a wonderful little visit from the local moutons (see video).  Very fun.  Amazing that sheep ranching is still practiced this way.




This weekend we went to Barrage de Bimont.  This dam in Sainte Victoire controls the water supply to a large provencal water system.  It's also the beginning of lots of great hikes into Sainte Victoire.

In addition to great hikes we also discovered paragliders taking advantage of the local cliffs and attendant thermal up-drafts.  Pretty amazing to watch these folks.  They were literally aloft for hours.  The sport was invented in France and there are now 25,000 french who "faissent du parapente".