" WALKING IN THE MORMOIRON AREA"








Four walks near Mormoiron: detailed descriptions.





Walk 1

South of Mormoiron, up to the chapel of Notre Dames des Anges.

. Takes 2 - 3 hours, with about 300m of ascent, some of it stony and rough underfoot.
This is the most strenuous of the four walks described here (though 5-year-olds have done it). It comes first because from the top of the Notre Dame des Anges hill, you get such grand views not only of Mormoiron, but also of Mt Ventoux and the whole surrounding area.
The walk starts at the shop for the wine made by the Cave Co-operative (1). This is below the village, beside the Carpentras - Sault road (D942), opposite the café-bar, La Sadreille. There is plenty of room to park your car. Leave the parking area by the south-west (right-hand) corner; cross the main road; and take the tarmac lane opposite marked to "La Ribière". Follow it down to the stream (the Auzon) which you later cross via a bridge. There are yellow paint marks along this part of the walk. Climb slowly up to La Ribière (farmhouse) and another house; then down a track until you reach a T-junction at a tarmac lane, with a yellow signpost (2). Turn left, uphill, towards "Col Blanc". From now until Notre Dame des Anges, the path is well marked with white-over-red GR signs : look out for them carefully.
Disregard the first two lanes on your right. At a Y-junction after about 250 m, take the stony right-hand path, leading straight uphill. You eventually reach a farm (Les Embœufs): barking dog!…The track levels out; fine views down towards the village. You reach a Y-junction after c. 250m: take the right-hand track uphill. When you reach another Y-junction, turn right up a path up-hill, past a cabanon (a little stone-built house), and following the sign for "Col Blanc" (3). When you reach the top of the ridge (the "Col Blanc", which is chalky - hence its name) (4), there is another yellow signpost. Turn left (marked for Mazan and La Grand Biol); but at once take the small path along the edge of the hill, following the GR signs. Climb up steeply through a pine wood with box bushes. When you reach the chapel of Notre Dame des Anges , do pause a while to enjoy the fantastic view (5). (Pity about the ugly electronic signal mast beside the chapel: still, it brings the village some revenue…)
Take the track to the left to descend to the farmhouse/vineyard below, also called Notre Dame des Anges. A third of the way down, take no notice of where the GR signs point sharp right, leading along a path into the woods.
Once you reach the farmhouse/vineyard (6), the most interesting part of the walk is over. You turn left onto the tarmac road; and the easiest option is then simply to follow it back down to Mormoiron - rather boring, but with good views. The French-language version of this website suggests two variants, both west of the road: but the first no longer works because the land-owners discourage access; and the second, lower down, is sporting at the best of times, and impossible when it has been raining (steep - and after rain, muddy, slippery, and involving wading across the stream at the bottom…) You can, of course, cheat by driving up to the vineyard and walking up the track to the chapel… But if you are able-bodied, it's more fun to do the whole walk Print

Walk 2

over Le Limon, the hill to the west of the village.

Takes about 2 - 2 ½ hours; about 100m. ascent, with few steep patches (both uphill and downhill).
This walk starts at the Place de la Mairie beside the church (1). Go down the alley with steps and a handrail; cross the main road; and go straight along the Route des Ecoles, past the gendarmerie. Continue along the back-road to Mazan (said to be an old Roman road).
About 400m. past Le Brillas (the last big house on the left), turn right, on a track leading steeply uphill through pine trees (2). At the top, turn sharp right. Path leads gently uphill through pines and oaks along edge of hill, then levels out before reaching a crossroads where 5 paths meet (3). Take the second path on the left, leading diagonally downhill. After about ½ km, you reach a T-junction (4). Take the track to the right, up the Vallat de Roux. After about 1 km, you reach a T-junction: turn sharp left along the other side of the valley until you reach a yellow sign-post where you follow right towards Chapelle St Alban etc. Soon you reach another yellow sign-post: turn right towards Crillon-le-Brave.
When you reach a house (5), turn diagonally right, on a track leading uphill through cherry orchards to the ruins of Chapelle St Alban (6). There, take the path to the left, leading gently uphill though juniper bushes. Soon you reach a path along the escarpment, and turn right along the edge. Great views of Mt Ventoux and down to Mormoiron. When you reach a crossroads (still on the edge of the hill) (7), turn left on a track leading steeply downhill. Pass two hairpin bends. At the third one, take the track leading steeply downhill to your right (this is the Chemin St Alban). You soon reach some houses; and it is easy to find your way back to the village.
[NB. There are no consistent marks to guide you on this walk: in some places blue marks have been painted; in other places, yellow.] Print

Walk 3

Les Vallats and Briguères walk (i.e. what the French-language version of this site calls "Le petit sentier des Vallats); (about 2 ½ to 3 hours). An excellent, varied walk, with two short uphill scrambles. The starting point is the car park beside the Salettes Lake (1). Retrace your steps up the tarmac road whence you came and turn right at the T-junction at the top, uphill. Continue about 700m until you reach the Salettes Bridge (2) on a right bend. Leave the road and take the path into the woods on your left, keeping the stream on your right (green, and green-over-yellow, paint marks).
Continue gradually uphill. After a bit, you pass a striking ochre cliff among pines on your left: continue uphill. When you reach a Y-junction, take the right turn (look out for green paint-blobs) along smaller path staying closer to stream (Vallat de Maupas). Short, steep, sandy stretch uphill through heather and young pines. At T-junction of sandy paths, turn left (green paint-blobs). The after c. 300m, another T-junction: turn right (more green blobs) along sandy track gently uphill. You pass a farmhouse (Ferme des Rassades) on your left. Bend right, crossing bridge over the by now almost dry stream (3), with a concrete water tank below the right side of the bridge. Immediately after the bridge turn left off the track, along the edge of a field and along a path on the right side of the stream-bed (disregard the green X sign on a tree…). After c. 500m, the path drops down to the left into the by now dry stream bed. Continue up this: it eventually turns into a sort of mini-valley (Vallat de Font Nouvelle). When you get to the head of this, you can take either the left or right alternative for the short, steep scramble up to the top; but the one on the far left is easiest. At the T-junction, turn right along the track. After c. 50m. you reach a cross-roads: go straight on (green, and green-over-yellow paint marks). The track bends left and passes a house, Le Ragas, on your left (4). (The friendly dog, Rex, doesn't bark!)
Then keep going along the track as near as possible to the edge of the hill, until you reach a tarmac road. Take the middle road following this for about 150m until it goes downhill to the left: instead, keep going straight ahead along the track, still along the edge of the hill. Look out for occasional green-over-yellow marks. After a while, you reach a Y-junction with a tarmac lane also going down the hill to your left (5).
Take no notice of this, but still keep going ahead on the track along the edge of the hill. When you reach a T-junction soon after a bend, do not take the track leading downhill to your right, but follow the path leading into the woods. Soon you reach another cross-roads beside the ruins of a small stone hut (6): take the path ahead leading downhill and curving right through woods and cherry fields until you reach a field where, unfortunately, in March 2009 the farmer put up two barbed-wire fences (no doubt to deter motorbikes and quads passing though his sherry-field illegally): but this obstacle can be by-passed by following a rough path marked with green blobs to the left.
You should regain the original route just past the second barbed wire fence, beside a barrier of dead tree-stumps. Carry on round the edge of the field, then gently downhill into a wood, where you should see green-over-yellow marks.
When you reach pine trees and the path turns left (7), go straight on downhill in the wood, following more green-over-yellow marks. Thereafter, it should not be too difficult to find your way back down to the lake through the woods, staying either on the right (north) side of the Vallat de Marquettan, or in the middle of it, or else following the more sporting path on the left (south) side which is marked with green blobs and green-over-yellow paint-signs.
NB. If you want a longer walk, at (5), instead go down the hill along the tarmac lane to your left, and finish along the rest of Walk 4 below. You rejoin the route above at (7), and finish up at the lake again. This variant would take about an hour longer. Print

Walk 4

Le Marquetton/ Les Sitos/ Picarel walk. (Takes about 2 ½ to 3 hours).

The starting point is again the car park beside the Salettes Lake (1). Walk clockwise beside the lake to the restaurant, La Cahute. Then take the path diagonally right, uphill, between the restaurant and the Ventoux Adventure playground, leading into a sandy pinewood. Climb up this small valley (Le Marquetton), staying roughly in the middle, for well over a km until you emerge from the woods. About half way up, you pass a cabanon called Grangeon de Marcel.
At the T-junction as you leave the wood (2), turn left along a track (it quickly curves right again to continue in the same easterly direction). Just as you emerge from some more trees, a track turns sharp left towards a summer-house (3); take no notice, but keep straight on along a track between fields. After a while you reach the trunks of some dead trees blocking the way. At this point, the farmer unfortunately put up two barbed-wire fences in March 2009 (no doubt to deter motor bikes and quads from illegally passing through his cherry-field). A rough path has since been established which by-passes this obstacle: look out for green blobs on your right which lead you back to the original route (two steep little banks to climb). Continue gently uphill along this path until you reach a crossroad, with a ruined stone hut on your left. Here, turn right along a path leading diagonally down the escarpment, through bands of red sand. You join the tarmac lane at a hairpin bend, just after an amphitheatre of red sandstone(4). Carry on downhill on the tarmac lane, past the next hairpin bend, leaving a house on your right. Shortly after, the road bends left. Take the path leading right from the road into the woods. Follow this, gently downhill, for a while (sandy underfoot), until you reach another T-junction (5). Turn right again. Another quite long sandy section, mostly level, but with some downhill stretches: follow the yellow marks carefully. Eventually, you reach a small tarmac road (6). Turn sharp right, uphill. (If you want to visit the Picarel , you will have to make a detour behind the house called "La France".) Continue past a house on your right until you reach another small road at a T-junction (7). Turn right, uphill. Follow this road as it winds up to the crest of the hill again.
When the tarmac ends, you are almost back at (3), so need to turn back left into the wood. You can then just go back down to the lake the way you came (down the middle of the Marquetton valley). Or else, you can follow the yellow signs that lead you along the left (south) edge of the Marquetton valley (that route includes a short, steep, stony section) before plunging down a steep, sandy slope to your right, above the Adventure playground. A third alternative (possibly the best) is to go on a little further, and follow the path that leads you down the right-hand (north) side of the Marquetton valley as in Walk 3 (some old green-over yellow signs). All three paths lead you back to the lake. Print

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