My very last hiking at Garlaban and Pic de Taoumé

It’s an emotional first June. This month might be my last one in the southern France. For this-time.For Eid on 24^th May, I went on a hike that was one of my first ever hikes in the south. And one week after I did this closure hike. As if, my hiking journey has been encapsulated in a weektime.I started hiking because, I wanted to discover the region in Airbus Helicopters hiking group. Essentially a bunch of happy retired and handful of active hiking passionate people. They welcomed me warm heartedly and I’ve been hiking with them since. I have discovered really lovely sites as Rustrel, Ubaye, Puy de Dôme, Puy de Sancy, les gorges de Tarn, Sainte Enimie, Conques, Camargue, La Sainte Beaume, le Mont Ventoux… And with my friends, I discovred la petite Camargue, Niolon, la Vesse, Le Cirque de Gavarnie, la Route des Crêtes, la Sainte Victoire, Sisteron, Gordes, Fontaine de Vaucluse… With my family, I discovered les Goudes, Marseilleveyre, les îles Frioules…Basically, I found this hike on the site visorando. You can also find this pdf and I recommend using smartphone with GPS signal. But remember to have a power bank with you. Otherwise a paper map is always better.Garlaban is 714m high peak, basically famous from the writer Marcel Pagnol. He loved the province and his books describe his attachment, the landscapes and the people. He used to come from Aubagne to Marseille bypassing the Garlaban. I’ve seen the silhouette from afar so many times. But I never got to the point to meet in person. This was my last chance.

We start the hiking at Parking de Puit de Raimu. After a little bit of walking on bitumen we reached the track leading to Garlaban by Vallon des Piches. We reached Col d’Aubignane and then went exploring the Grotte de Manon. I don’t know if it is related to the film Manon des Sources but you should see the film because of their typical southern accent. This cave is in form of a long bench carved in the cliff giving a splendid view on Marseille. One can see the Frioules Islands, the Baslique Notre Dame de la Garde, Orange vélodrome, the CMA-CGM tower…After a break there we continued our ascension which surprising was continuous and not so hard. At this point we didn’t had any view on Garlaban so we thought that Pic de Taoumé is actually Garlaban. But when we reached the col de Garlaban, it was abvious that we have been targeting the wrong summit all along ^^’’.On Visorando site, it says that it is a highly frequented region but during the ascension we hardly crossed 8 persons. The summit of Garlaban was however crowed. The last segment to Garlaban is hard but one just needs take its time and manage its breath and it will be fine. The view is splendid. One can see the Cap Canaille, the stone-pit of Géménos, the Sainte beaume, the Sainte Victoire even, the Pilon de Roi…The we headed to the Pic de Taoumé. Mid way we found the cave of Sourne. It’s opening is really not large and protected by a rock. At first you don’t see much in there and then you start entering and discover a cavity as large as a cinema hall !! It was cool inside, water was tipping from the ceiling and the cavity seemed to be used by a water stream at some point. Subhanallah, I was in awe !!Then we headed up to Taoumé (667m), a little bit of ascension but not much. Another viewpoint which extends the horizon to the Etang de Berre. With the binoculars we could clearly see the Berre industries even. We stood there amazed and enjoyed the sight. This instant was a whole word. This was a magic instant that would stay in my memory. As my friend declared that this hike was “Lolo approuved”, Lolo being his nickname, and that this hiking was a great addition to his collection, he would come back with his parents.After that, we struggled a little bit to find our way because there was no clear marking and my other friend was getting tired. One slope later we rejoined the track we left to see La grotte de Manon and were happy to find flat surface. This hike is really great. Alhamdullilah. An amazing gift from Allah. An amazing opportunity.