Starting from Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, a beautiful walk along large, clearly-marked, shady trails. Beautiful viewpoints over the Alpilles, the village and the château des Baux-de-Provence.
The fragrant plants of the South and also pines and even cedars.
Calculated time: 5h15[?] 
Distance : 15.32km
Vertical gain : 310m
Vertical drop : 301m
Highest point : 287m
Lowest point : 70m 
Difficulty : Moderate
Back to starting point : Yes
Walking
Area : Alpilles 
Location : Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
(13210)
Starting point : N 43.784368° / E 4.828474° Free parking is available at the cemetery car park (south of Saint-Rémy) (D).
While heading in a southerly direction, cross the small canal and, about a hundred metres later, join the 'chemin gaulois' (1), an old Roman road. Head towards the right and follow the marked trail of the GR 653D along the small road which passes through a hamlet of pretty (mostly Provençal) farmhouses .
(2) On reaching the D27, turn left and follow this new route for a few metres. A DFCI path, with GR waymarkers, starts on your right and continues to climb upwards through forest and garrigue.
Follow it until it meets a new perpendicular track, turn left and almost immediately left again to follow the sign in the direction of "Saint-Rémy-de-Provence". This time you need to follow the GR6 marked trail.
(3) Cross the D27 which we meet only to then leave it again immediately, taking the small road which climbs up to the orientation table before turning into a track, providing exceptional views over Les Baux-de-Provence and the plain.
Follow this track, the GR marked trail and, a little after passing beyond the Lombards trail which starts on the right, turn to the left through a gap in the rocks and leave the GR.
The trail goes back down towards Saint-Rémy. At the water tank, stay on the trail which heads downwards and you will reach the car park at Lake Peïrou.
Head away towards the left, keeping an eye on the yellow waymarkers that more or less closely follow the route.
When we meet D5, turn left and a few metres later follow the signs for the cemetery car park.
Waypoints :
D/A : km 0 - alt. 72m
1 : km 0.23 - alt. 79m
2 : km 3.89 - alt. 97m
3 : km 5.9 - alt. 213m
4 : km 7.81 - alt. 228m
5 : km 11.08 - alt. 281m
6 : km 11.38 - alt. 262m
7 : km 12.31 - alt. 206m
8 : km 13.02 - alt. 158m
9 : km 14.66 - alt. 90m
D/A : km 15.32 - alt. 72m
Access is controlled in summer, make sure you check before leaving.
Visorando and this author cannot be held responsible in the case of accidents or problems occuring on this walk.
The ancient site of Glanum, Les Baux-de-Provence, etc.
Global average : 4/5
Number of opinions : 2
Clarity of route description : 3.5/5
Clarity of route map : 4.5/5
Walk interest : 4/5
Global average : 4 / 5
Date of walk
: 22/07/19
Clarity of route description
: Average
Clarity of route map
: Very good
Walk interest
: Good
Completed this walk in July 2019. It was a nice walk, through a lot of scrubby bushland and up what seemed to be fire trails and old 4wd tracks.
The directions could have been a lot better however, and I was constantly reliant on the GPX map that I'd loaded onto my phone. There were large sections of the trail that were not referred to in the description, the most important being the track through someone's property - make sure to turn right to find the track just after the driveway and don't follow the painted waymarkers because he didn't like someone wandering through his property (fair enough!).
The view over Les Baux was amazing - I would have liked to know how to get there on tracks without following the road (a bit dangerous), but even after having walked it I'm still not sure there is a quicker way. Les Baux is a nice little village. Very touristy but pretty and worthy of a detour, if only for lunch. It's about 1.5km away.
All in all, a fairly enjoyable walk.
Global average : 4 / 5
Date of walk
: 16/06/19
Clarity of route description
: Good
Clarity of route map
: Good
Walk interest
: Good
This map was very useful. We followed this route to get from St Remy to Les Baux and back in order to visit Les Carrieres de Lumieres. We had been informed in Avignon that, with a change in bus timetables (mid June 2019), the 59 bus route between St Remy and Arles had been discontinued. The alternative is a taxi ride at €30 each way. We chose to enjoy the walk.
The start of the walk involved a lot of paved road but once we got onto the track it was pretty straightforward to follow the route. We used Google maps on our phone to ensure we didn’t go astray from your map as well as way markers on trees. The return route was supposed to be straight forward with little direction offered after the water tank. However there was a divide in the path. The main route (GR6) was to the left while the map indicated to take the right fork. We followed the map. After 400 meters or so we doubted the wisdom of this move and we found a little path and a steep climb back up to the main route. This seemed to align with the map. It would have been easier all round to stay on the main route.
All in all, a good walk. Average difficulty, as indicated. We were lucky too in that there was a strong wind which kept the the air cool, otherwise this walk would have been unbearable in the heat.
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+238m
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2h40
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+257m
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N.B.!: the short technical part with cables and some metal steps fixed into the rock that allows you to cross the rock above Lake Peiroou has been temporarily closed for safety reasons.
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+178m
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8.04km
+206m
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5.34km
+152m
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2h00
Moderate
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10.52km
+181m
-173m
3h30
Moderate
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+114m
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3h15
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The GPS track and description are the property of the author.
