Sainte Baume
Sainte Baume is a beautiful region/massif (mountain/plateau that rises up out of the valley of Marseille and the provencial countryside); it is located very close to Marseille, but it takes about an hour in the car to wind up the road that carries you up to the top of the plateau. I went hiking with the Alpine Club in Sainte Baume and it was like a paradise. Sainte Baume is heavily forested, and it is a bird haven. The others in the hiking club described how one of the kings of france, like Louis XIV or XV had planted the forest here. As we hiked along the “crete” – the plateau top, bird song rose up out of the forest bellow and bathed us in a sweet symphony.
During the hike my friends taught me the expression “tire a la plus courte paille” – this is an expression for drawing straws. “tire a la plus courte paille” literally means pull the shortest straw. As we approached the trail we walked along a field of wheat and used a wheat stalk to draw straws 
We also hiked by a cave that would have been really neat to go spelunking in. I happened to think as we stood in the entrance, “si c’est murs puissent parler” – “if these walls could talk.” Because certainly they encompassed and had witnessed centuries of history. I’m not a history buff or aficionado at all, but for a moment, history seemed alive when I wondered who had visited this cave in the past. Brigands of robbers, gypsies? My mind flashed to ideas of Robin Hood. Certainly it’s walls had been used for taking cover, hiding, and who knows what.
Not far from this cave was another cave – “un grotte” – where monks had built a monastery in the first millenia. Every hour they rang bells from the chapel which was in a cliff side. The monastery definitely had a feeling of awe to it. It truly felt removed from the world and thereby had an out of the ordinary tranquility. I felt that everything in that place pointed one to the cross and Christ. Though any church is liable to get sidetracked with symbolism and ritual, and I cannot be the judge of others’ hearts, I felt that this monastery was truly a setting where one would be challenged to place the gospel and the cross at the forefront of one’s mind every moment of every day. It seemed a special place.
See pictures below in post “Catching Up”
