“Hill after hill, you rise on one side and descend on the other, but each time you descend less than you have climbed. Thus, little by little, the earth lifts you up without pretending.”
Thus, Giono describes a journey from Manosque heading north, in Regain, one of his early novels (1930). The mountain that fuels the writer’s heart is the Lure, a massif of the Southern Prealps rising to 1,825 m.
The land of free men
Across its foothills unfolds the Contadour plateau, a landscape the author loved to wander. There, in the 1930s, he even organized gatherings where he spread his pacifism, he, the man scarred by the Great War. This plateau he also made into a character in his novels, as in Regain: “As far as the eye can see, vast and bare, and so flat that it can make the heart ache, that you suddenly feel the need to see something rise into the air.”
Today, the path that traverses the Contadour is partially inaccessible due to landowner disputes. The walk therefore begins higher up, directly on the trail leading to Mount Lure. “Giono was a man of the mountains. Up there, he liked to say that it was the country of free men, of shepherds”, explains Christian Morzewski, from the Friends of Giono association.
Where the wind of always blows
The itinerary, following the ridge line, unveils a majestic panorama. To the north, the Écrins range stands out in the distance. To the west, Mont Ventoux looms alone like a scarecrow. Up there, at the summit, it is the realm of what he calls the “wind of always.” On the route, with the head tilted toward the sky, one can spot bories, old round stone buildings that sheltered shepherds during the alpage season. As one climbs toward the summit of the Lure, forests become sparser, the gray of the rock replacing the green of the woods. On these peaks, before the 20th century, men and women trod, arms heavy with plants – gentian, arnica, valerian – which they sold to pharmacies for their medicinal properties. On sunny days, the gentle aromas exhaled by the mountain are like a reminiscence of that bygone era.
To know
Technical sheet : 300 m of cumulative elevation gain on this 8.5 km route.
Nearby : head west along the ridges to reach the summit of L’Homme, the lesser-known peak.
👉 “In Giono’s footsteps: four hikes along the pen to follow the writer in his country of the heart”, an article to be found in GEO’s Special Issue No. 133 for June-July 2026, “France, our favorite summer strolls”, on newsstands ✨
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