Une Nuit Bizarre! (A strange night)

Last night I slept in a monastery on top of a mountain.

Curious? Read on.

Rob and Leah have their birthdays on consecutive days, so to celebrate, a group of about 10 of us decided to walk up to the top of the tallest mountain in Aix, St. Victoire, and spend the night up there in the cabin.

1. The Climb

The mountain didn't exactly LOOK that high. And apparently, it only took '1 and a half hours max' to get to the top. And you certainly couldn't see all the slippery rocks from the bottom...

Bern, the big crazy German guy, is an absolute lifesaver. Since my old backpack broke, the only option I had for carrying my blanket up the mountain was an airport bag - not for dragging, but for carrying like a suitcase. Bern took me aside and told me that it 'wasn't exactly practical to carry a suitcase up a mountain', and found me a huge backpack in his own store to use. Thank god for that; I would have probably jumped off the mountain in frustration if I had to carry that thing all the way up.

We had a problem from the start; due to the lack of clarity where the bus was going to stop, half the group went to another location to wait; the bus came to us and not to them so we ended up leaving without them. They would have to catch the bus an hour later, and climb the mountain when it got dark...

So Bern, Rob, Emily, Leah, Kalla and myself headed up the mountain. Bern, who has done the climb about 4 times, took us on a 'contraband route', which although more direct, was a lot more difficult. I was exhausted just walking on the dirt path; we hadn't even set foot on the mountain yet...

It was a truly tiring walk, even more so because I was listening to Leah complaining the whole way up :). Although she did have every right to complain, it was her birthday and she was spending it in climbing a mountain. I shared her sentiment, even if I was less vocal about it. It took us about 3.5 hours of uphill climbing before we reached the summit. Particularly annoying was the fact that there was a number of false summits on the mountain, so we kept thinking we were almost there, only to have our hopes dashed against the rocks. Furthermore, it was a very rough track; lots of massive rocks which we had to climb on and jump over. The only thing indicating that civilisation had come here was the fact that an occasional blue line was marked on a rock, showing the 'easiest' path.

However on the way up, there was a gorgeous view. We could see the Alps in the distance in one direction, Marseille in the distance in another direction. It was a cloudless day, and we could see nearly all of Provence.

2. The Monastery

We reached the top totally exhausted, but proud to have finally done it. The Monastery looked like something from the 15th Century, indeed it was, except it had been rebuilt by a team of volunteers. There was a chapel, a large pit, a random lodge attached to the chapel, and a large shelter. The shelter was virtually empty, except for a pile of wood, some benches and a fireplace. The fireplace had a strange design at the back, a stone tablet with medieval engravings on it. Looked like some sort of royal seal.

Everyone had brought up a surplus of food, so we began eating right away and trying to light the fire. Of those two skills, eating is the only one I have actually mastered, so I concentrated on that job while the others lit the fire.

The plan was to cook things over the fire - there was some meat brought up, as well as potatoes and foil.