It was do or die! I now was at the beginning of the real adventurous part of my lavender trip. The night before I was feeling nervous. "Was it stupid to start with the most dangerous road of my whole trip". I worried... I didn't even know yet if my car would be capable of driving in the mountains! Or if I was able to drive in the mountains. I remember the fear of heights that I always had in the back of my parent's car. What if I would panic and drive the car just off a cliff?
There was no way of knowing beforehand and I REALLY wanted to check the Route de Presles. If I wanted to see this lavender, I had to get my act together and just drive. "If it really is that scary you will know soon enough and turn around". Little did I know there was no way I was going to be able to turn on those roads!!
The route
I had my apartment booked in Montbrun-les-Bains. I had to be there before 6, but I was probably not going to make that. Not a problem, they offered to leave the key somewhere I could pick it up.
That morning I did all the modern day road-trippy things. I put on a pair of my most comfortable pants. I filled my cooler-bag with drinks and ice. I downloaded the route on my phone. I filled up the tank and got some sandwiches from the local baker. I installed the GoPro on my car window. I was ready to go!
Route de Presles
Soon I arrived at the starting point of the Route de Presles. Presles.... After endless tries to get it right, I still struggle to pronounce it the correct way in French. This is a challenge when you want to ask the locals how scary it is, I noticed. I parked my car to turn on the camera in front of a friendly enough looking road. "This will be fine!", I told myself.
What followed was a not so challenging first part... a gorgeous but very narrow road. I barely could fit my Fiat 500 on that road, so I kept my fingers crossed I wouldn't run into an oncoming car. If you have watched the video, you know by now that I was pretty lucky. The one time I ran into an oncoming truck, there was just a bit of extra space so we could pass! I wondered many times if I took the right road. This was not breathing the "dangerous road" vibe that I expected. The road made me nervous, but mostly because it was so narrow. Not because of any cliffs and stuff. And as usual... at the moment you start to get a little fed up with the situation, things change... Stone walls and cliffs appeared! THIS IS IT!! I sounded my horn to warn any upcoming traffic and slowly drove through the first carved out tunnel. Yup, I got excited! Now it finally started! I zigzagged and was super happy with the size of my mini car. I did a few hairpin bends and the views turned back to "normal". Was that all? The amazing views I hardly noticed. I was there for cliffs and carved out tunnels! This was far from dangerous! And so I kept driving, hoping for things to become exciting again. At the end of the route, I parked my car and stopped the camera. Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed. But then there was the first larger town that I drove through: Pont-en-Royans. I instantly wanted to be part of that! The colourful houses just barely hanging on the cliffs over the river give the town such a cosy feeling. Unfortunately, it was all super narrow and filled with tourists. So I wasn't able to find a good parking spot near the town. There were spaces further away, but with the length of this day trip in mind, I decided to just snap 2 pics and get back in the car. I can totally see myself stay there for a weekend though! I blocked all the traffic in the town while I tried turning my mini car around. I waved goodbye to the town and before I knew it, I was already in completely different surroundings. During the trips I took that week, I noticed that in this area of France the views keep changing. One moment you're in a town, next you are in a nice hilly landscape and when you turn a corner you are driving next to the edge of a cliff. So it didn't take long before I was driving on a road over 1000m above sea level. The perfect spot to open the windows of the car to let some fresher air in (yup, no AC in my car). I drove my car through a few cols and parked here and there for the occasional photo. I sat down on a picknick table to have a croissant while enjoying the fresh air and amazing view. But never did I sit down for too long. Montbrun-les-Bains was waiting for me and I was not even halfway yet! A few cyclists passed me for a second time at stop such and such. "The Tour de France is about to start, they are all just wannabees", I told myself. I will never understand why you would put yourself through cycling up a mountain. A minute later I watch a clearly not that well-trained cyclist working her ass up the hill. I am in awe of her perseverance! At the same time, I felt sorry for her, knowing the road ahead. If I were her I'd turn around and go back. Don't hate me! I'm Dutch.... cycling should only happen on flat surfaces 😎. But never was I afraid of the heights while driving. And this surprised me! I felt in total control of the car and I wasn't afraid I would drive myself off a cliff. Maybe it was because I had to focus on the road and not the space next to it. Maybe I never trusted the driving skills of my parents when I was younger... I left the mountains behind me (for the time being, they will be back in future blogs). Almost half-way the planned trip of this day and I had no idea what to expect. When I prepared for this trip, I took all the lavender routes from this website and dropped them on a map. My goal was to follow large parts of those routes, but also getting from A to B. Timing was supposed to be perfect. It was a week before the first series of harvests would take place. I was driving my car closer to the red route from the North... Any minute now! The moment I first noticed a lavender field, it was a bit surreal. I have never seen that colour in a field! Before I drove near Die, I saw nothing but green, brown, blue and grey. And now, all of a sudden, someone seemed to have dropped a bucket of bright purple paint in the scenery. It was easy to find a spot to park the car. This field of lavender was why I drove all the way to the south of France. The weeds growing between the lavender made it look a bit messy but I didn't care. The buzzing sound of bees dominating the air around the lavender wasn't scaring me. I found lavender. It was blooming nicely. They weren't harvesting it yet. At this point, I wondered what this must have smelled like. Maybe, one day, they will find a solution for all the people that were born without any sense of smell. And I would definitely return to this area when I am lucky enough! Lavender fields started showing up on a regular basis. It made my day, seeing my favourite colour in the wild. It was tempting to stop every time, but I wanted to get to my destination before dark. So I decided to cut a bit of the route that would be more about vineyards than lavender. I'd drive to Grignan and then to the apartment! Is Grignan that special then? Not really, but they have a castle which is a major tourist attraction. And there is a lavender field in front of it! So I honestly didn't want to miss taking that photo... until I saw the lavender field 😟. It was almost more weeds than lavender and no way was I able to turn that into a nice photo. The castle on top of the hill in the middle of the town looked a bit too modern, which isn't surprising when you figure out the castle was completely reconstructed in the early 20th century. My car was parked in a huge parking lot for tourists and I wanted to leave asap. I didn't even try to find a better piece of lavender field. It was hot and busy and the car was pretty cool after a few hours drive. I hit the road again! The last bit of the drive. I was now going to drive to the apartment non-stop. At first, the road looked pretty dull, but half an hour later I started climbing again. Hairpins here and there and amazing views! I started the GoPro again for the last part of my trip that day. My fatalistic inside voice told me that if I'd drive off a cliff now, at least they would be able to see what went wrong. I enjoyed the last bit of the route a lot. I was back in the hills, the weather was nice and I knew I was almost there when I saw the Mont Ventoux showing up. The roads were pretty empty and I could even try some rally style driving. Cutting a corner when driving past a wall of rocks just feels like vacation to me... I arrived at the apartment, got the key, carried my stuff to the room and took a serious nap. The time that I woke up made me worry if there were still restaurants willing to serve me. But they were! And the food was amazing (apart from the "lavender" creme brulee that was just a plain one). While eating dinner I let that day pass. The dangerous road was far from dangerous. But I already spotted some amazing lavender. The car was very capable of driving in the mountains and I had no fear of heights while driving. I was ready to see this trip become even more amazing than it started! But first some sleep.... fuck, I was tired! Zzzzzzz Also in this series:
Ready-set-go
I was looking forward to seeing this bit
A quicky at Port-en-Royans
Testing my acrophobia
The purple introduction
Timing of the lavender growth & harvest in the Provence. Source
Castles and lavender!
Lavender has just been planted
Weeds and lavender, such a shame
Almost there!! I can see the Mont Ventoux
Lavender Creme Brulee my ass
Can you imagine what a good night sleep could be achieved camping right in the middle of a lavender field?
Great trip pics, thank you for sharing.
Sounds cool but will probably suck. It is super warm around those field and really swarming with bees... that sound alone would keep you awake :)
Yes, I forgot to consider that's a playground for bees of course.
It's so beautiful. I was there in the same car (just white) last year. Were around the same places and ended up a week in Cannes and St. Tropez! Love it! Hope you had fun!
White is probably much better in that burning sun :) I considered driving all the way to the beach but decided that was for another time. I went to a lake though!
don't know if i could sleep in those houses, i would just trip that i will wake up in the river down below :)
why i don't like to drive most of the times on this kind of trips, because it is a demanding road so i have to concentrate on driving and then missing the beautiful scenery or i just drive to slow and happily annoy everyone in the car :) (onec a friend started handbraking the tight corners just because he was bored driving behind me :D )
It crossed my mind multiple times that I would be able to enjoy the views more if I had a chauffeur... ;)
Such an enjoyable article to read! I read every word, and your style of writing is also very nice. Almost feel tempted to try the road myself, not because of the lavender, but because of the views and the road itself.
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