#provence26

Driving in France you are often on straight roads that are lined and shaded by trees. But who planted all the trees in France, and why?

There are a lot of answers that are all wrong. The Romans did it along their straight roads - no, those trees would be dead and today’s roads are not Roman. Napoleon did it to shade the movement of troops - no, most of the trees were planted before Napoleon and he would have had to wait 50 years for the trees to shade his troops. The land owners did it for decoration - no, the land owners would not have spent their money other than on their land.

When Louis XV came to the throne the roads of France were in a terrible state and the finance minister (Orry) was put in charge of fixing things to speed commerce and travel. He created a “corvée des chemins” - a road duty/chore/obligation - that forced everyone to build and maintain roads. The major roads were specified to be 19.5 meters wide with a drainage trench each side and lined … you guessed it … with trees.

Mostly these are plane trees Platanus acerifolia now called London Plane which would have offended every Louis for sure.

The French can do infrastructure and by the end of the reign there were 25,000 Km of roads and the travel time from (say) Paris to Orleans dropped from 2.5 days to one day - the 18th century equivalent of the TGV.

One of the only times any of the Louis invested in something other than wars or palaces.

Today, opinions vary about whether to keep the trees. Some say they are dangerous - one in eight road deaths are from hitting a tree - but others argue they the closeness of the trees gives a greater impression of speed and slows people down. If you run off the road, you are going to hit something … so who knows.

The discussion my be irrelevant because the plane trees are now being decimated by the spread of a fungus and millions in research have not yet found a cure for the iconic trees.

What goes up must come down - how you come down is the question.

Above the village of La Grave surrounded by world class ski stations is a small stone place of prayer - the Oratory of Chazelet - worth a detour just for the road to get there and the astonishing view of the Parc National des Ecrins and the Meije Glacier.

Alongside the oratory is installed a viewing perch that takes it up a notch - a short platform that is cantilevered over the abyss maybe a thousand feet down. A fabulous ride and a breathtaking viewing experience.

The Lac du Serre-Poncon is one of Europe’s largest reservoirs near the town of Gap and controls the water from the Durance and Ubaye rivers flowing from the Alps. At about 5,000 feet elevation is Fort Joubert that was built in 1692 to keep an eye on possible invasion from Savoie. Today it stands sentinel to a launch platform for hang gliding and parasailing. Another wonderful ride around the lake and up to the fort to find people who had come from Holland to jump off this cliff. Not a lot of 5,000 foot jumps near Amsterdam. Sadly the strong Mistral winds and serious thermals from the heat wave had cancelled launches for the day.

The fort itself has been undergoing restoration for years with a yellow crane spoiling the view - but the cliff jumpers love the crane as it gives a reliable indication of wind direction.

The Vercors is a massif - a limestone fortress - southwest of Grenoble - a five hundred square mile plateau that has canyons with vertical walls a few hundred meters deep.

During WW2 it became a legendary stronghold for the French Resistance. We visited the Resistance Memorial - subtly hidden in a wooded valley to echo the ability of the landscape to hide the saboteurs and freedom fighters.

We arrived a little too late for the guided tour but resident historian, Julien, took us aside to a balcony where we would not disturb the reverence of other visitors overlooking the necropolis for those killed in the village of Vassieux-en-Vercors below us. In a mix of languages he gave us a sketch of the history that I found moving and humbling; hard not to choke up when trying to translate.

The Vercors is a hostile place to live in any season, and has long developed a tradition of welcome. French and many other nationals fleeing from the north after the Nazis overran Paris found refuge here. Jewish families were hidden and Jewish children were given Catholic birth certificates. Village people refused all honours for any of this after the war. “Why would we be given medals for doing the right thing?”

Over 4000 resistance fighters lived here in old barns and camping in the woods. America and the UK and Canada dropped in airborne troops to supply arms and training and stayed to fight. In 1944, they prepared a landing strip from the fork in a road visible from the memorial, expecting allied troops to join them but 10,000 Nazi troops got there first. A communication problem that is typical in any conflict; but made worse by distrust of an up and coming DeGaulle by two crusty politicians Churchill and Roosevelt.

The village of Vassieux was destroyed, its population massacred; the youngest shot was 18 months old, the cemetery contains many empty sarcophagi as not all bodies were found.

The resistance defined all collaboration as treachery and the retribution after the war was ugly too.

One of the classic “balcony” roads in France is the Col de la Machine in the Vercors Massif - finished in 1896 it is now a well known beauty spot and a must-ride for any visiting biker. Entering from the south end is like walking on stage from the wings; the auditorium of the Combe Laval valley just opens up and you are left to enjoy the view 1500 feet down from the seat of a large motorcycle that puts you and your body well and truly higher than the retaining wall. Spectacular. The drop from those turns feels like infinity.

Today riding a loop from Briançon - heading east and into Italy, the lovely Mont Cenis and then two climbs that will be included in this year’s Tour de France - the smooth and twisty Col du Telegraphe and then up to the Col du Galibier; rugged and beautiful and dangerous up to 8,200 feet with no guard rails in sight and stunning colours and light as thunder clouds developed in every direction.

Dropping down for the last quick run back to Briançon we joked about the water in the air when the heavens opened with enough rain and hail to send waves of water down the road and caused a stream to burst and close the road with a flood of rock and mud. Road closed; probably for a couple of days; no easy way back.

Long story short; we sat out the storm at a nearby hotel and, of all the options, running the ride in reverse in the rain until dark was the least worse choice.

These are not normal weather patterns - hotter and more humid air, develops bigger and higher thunderstorms, that do greater damage.

But we had an EPIC day.

This week I had the chance to visit the Mandarom Shambhasalem monastery on a rocky hillside a few miles outside Castellane in the South of France. About two hours and a million miles away from the extravagance of St. Tropez.

The monastery was established in 1969 by Gilbert Bourdin, whose personal spiritual search ended in Rishikesh with his commitment to yoga and Vedanta and his name change to Hamsananda Sarasvati. He came back to France and started an ashram around the idea of Aumism - a “Universal Religion that unites all the religious currents of the Earth within the Unity of the sound OM. It is the Ideal of Unity, for the evolution of humanity and its maintenance within the Golden Age—an age of peace and planetary solidarity.”.

Hard to argue with any of that.

The monastery is not often open to the public so I wrote to them months ago asking to visit and was given a one on one tour by one of the members.

I had seen pictures of the place and wanted to understand how it got there.

The monastery is at the end of a farm road but spectacularly visible from a couple of miles away across the valley with its massive concrete statues of Jesus and Buddha locked eye to eye across the campus. These works are the reason that the group’s relations with the town blew up - literally - into a two decade legal battle.

The good people of the region thought their statuary was a blot on the landscape and the battles in court and the press ended with the French army being called in to dynamite the statue of the group’s founder. The international press went nuts with the story and the community members were stunned at the way they were treated.

The French government parliamentary commission has since defined the group as a cult when it had 2000 members. The group’s founder died in 1998 but there are still 400 followers who hope for his resurrection.

So who gets to decide what’s a “real” religion?

I was shown around by a lady about my age. I was told not to take pictures so some of the photos here are from their website. Every member was dressed in the same kind of tunic and each wore a headband with the same set of symbols representing the openness to all religions. My guide talked about the imperative for personal evolution through meditation and dialogue with others to break down barriers and find and build peace. We spent some time in the tall cylindrical building used for group services - with an astonishing resonance when saying OM or reciting prayers. Many members live here but my guide lives elsewhere and comes here for weeks at a time. She said “she came into the world as Jewish, but that does not prevent me learning and listening to others”.

The French government is constitutionally non religious but the French government agency MIVILUDES (an acronym that translates to Interministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combating Cult Movements) identifies groups which exploit people financially and put members at risk of physical or mental abuse.

By these standards, every religion of earth would be banned.

Nobody objects to La Chapelle de Notre Dame du Roc that dominates Castellane

Here at Mandarom I heard nothing riskier than you might here in a Los Angeles yoga and meditation class and heard a general philosophy that should be followed by more countries and their leaders.

Lots to reflect on.

Translated from their web site - can anyone disagree?

“1.Aumism: The Doctrine of the Golden Age

Aumism aims to achieve balance between body and spirit—to foster a better understanding of oneself in order to better understand others—and to pray for the spiritual evolution of all beings, thereby helping humanity progress along the path of tolerance, harmony, and peace.

Aumism reconciles science and religion, offering realistic perspectives for a shared future.

Aumism provides clear, practical solutions to the challenges facing our contemporary societies—issues such as relationships, education, and the future of the youth.

This Doctrine invites us to transcend the current moral and spiritual crisis by giving meaning to existence and by helping each individual to walk the path of Love.

It offers us fresh perspectives on death, reincarnation, and human psychology.“

“2. Aumism: Derived from the Primordial Sound AUM

The word AUMISM is derived from the sound AUM—the source of all the religious traditions of humanity (AUM, AMEN, AMIN)—and leads to the Unity of the Absolute, to fusion with God.”

“3. Being an Aumist

To be an Aumist is to live one’s faith without seeking to impose it upon others.

To be an Aumist is to pray for all—friends and enemies alike—and to be a selfless servant of the world and of the Universe.

To be an Aumist is to purify oneself inwardly while helping to purify the astral and material realms of both inhabited and uninhabited worlds.

To be an Aumist is to assist our friends—the entities of stones, plants, animals, and the elements—in ascending to the higher worlds of the great evolutionary ladder, of which humanity is but a single link.

To be an Aumist is to help departed souls better comprehend the realities of the afterlife; it is to help the living—those who so desire—to no longer fear the death of the body, and to understand the true purpose of existence: to express one’s own divinity.

To be an Aumist is to cultivate a sense of Unity and Universality. It is to love one’s country faithfully, without ever forgetting that one is also a citizen of the world and of the Universe.

To be an Aumist is to detach oneself, day by day, from personal concerns in order to participate in the silent service of the world.

People here call this the “Little Sistine Chapel of the Alpes-Maritimes”. There has been a place of worship here for centuries blessing a series of seven springs renowned for their water quality but intermittent flow. One gentlemen here was shocked we were not filling our bottles with “the magic water”

It really is off the the tourist routes in the Roya valley near Tende that was ravaged by Storm Alex in 2020 that swept away houses and people.

The chapel was completed in the 12th century and the stunning frescoes were inaugurated in 1492. Over 2500 square feet of remarkable quality and realism, a graphic novel telling the Bible stories to people who could not read; in the 15th century this would have been like a 3D virtual reality headset to people who lived tough lives.

A journey from the birth of Mary to the Assumption, the Passion of Christ the story of Judas, and the Last Judgement in the largest panel.

But spiritual nourishment comes in many forms including in two wheels with a large motor. Jim, Scott, and Michael had bikes that could explore the history of the 19th century fortifications on the Italy-France border at 6,000 feet with spectacular views on a stormy afternoon. Colin and Chris’s bikes are not made for those roads so we could just admire the views.

Now in Limone-Piemonte just in Italy.

The word Provence evokes lavender and Chateauneuf-du-Pape and Van Gogh’s sunflowers and Peter Mayle’s books - Aix, Arles, Avignon. These are all there but the historic region of Provence reaches from the Rhone to Italy and from the Mediterranean to the Alps and contains one of the highest concentrations of great motorcycle roads on Earth. Almost no flat land, rocky coastline, canyons and cliff edges, medieval villages on every hilltop. We will ride from sea level to the highest paved roads in France and ride several epic mountain sections of this year’s Tour de France.

About 12,000 square miles of fun stuff. We’ll skip the big cities. If Provence was in the US, this would be the sixth largest US county by area and the twelfth by GDP. The size of Harney County Oregon and the GDP of Ukraine.

The Romans made this area their first province beyond the Alps and called it Provincia Nostra, it’s been part of France for 500 years, the Popes moved here to Avignon for a century, and there is a distinct local culture of food and language and Provençal dialect to discover. We will also criss-cross the France-Italy border with its fortifications built by the paranoia of Louis XIV, Napoleon, the newly created Italy, and André Maginot.

The plan is to do a counter clockwise ride. Avignon to Marseille, the limestone rocky Var area including the Gorges de Verdon, then St. Tropez to see how the Epstein class live, to Vence, and then the Vesubie Valley down to Menton near Monaco. Then up and around the fortified Italian border, over the high alpine passes to Briançon, west towards Grenoble over more monster passes. A quick loop into the Vercors, the heart of the French Rsistance to see the balcony roads, and then via Gap and the Route Napoleon, to Sisteron across Mont Ventoux, and back to Avignon.