# Mont Ventoux, the Giant of Provence — The South of France
> A bare white summit that looks snow-capped in August, a legend of the Tour de France, and lavender plateaus at its feet. Mont Ventoux, in the Vaucluse.

*Source : https://the-south-of-france.com/en/provence/mont-ventoux/*

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By **The Editors** — _Mont Ventoux, Vaucluse_

Spring 20268 min read Share LinkMail

You see **Mont Ventoux** from half of Provence — a single pale mountain standing apart from any range, its summit a desert of white limestone scree so bright it looks snow-covered in high summer. At 1,909 metres it is the giant of the region, and its name says the rest: the _ventoux_, the windy one.

## I. The bald white summit

The forest climbs the lower slopes and then simply stops, and the last kilometres to the top are bare broken stone, swept by a wind that has been clocked above three hundred kilometres an hour. From the observatory tower at the summit the view runs to the Alps, the Rhône and, on the clearest days, a far line of the sea.

“A mountain that wears no snow and looks white all summer — the wind keeps it bare.”

From the notebook

![A bare scree slope rising to a summit tower](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1566720537031-8b3e498d2881?fm=jpg&q=74&w=1400&auto=format&fit=crop)

The last kilometres — white scree and the summit tower, swept by wind.

## II. The mountain of the Tour

The **Tour de France** made the Ventoux a place of legend and once of tragedy — the English rider **Tom Simpson** died near the top in 1967, and his memorial still draws cyclists who leave a bottle or a cap as they pass. Three roads climb it, from **Bédoin**, **Malaucène** and **Sault**; riders come from all over the world to take on at least one.

![A road winding up a bare mountain under a wide sky](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1578330466360-bd27f92d2fb1?fm=jpg&q=76&w=2400&auto=format&fit=crop)

The climb from Bédoin — forest, then the white desert of the summit.

## III. Lavender at its feet

You do not have to climb it. The eastern approach through **Sault** crosses a high plateau that turns blue with **lavender** in July, the mountain always on the horizon; below to the west lie the vineyards of the **Côtes du Ventoux** and the perched villages of the **Dentelles de Montmirail**. The giant gives the whole country its backdrop.

The Practical Carnet · Carnet pratique

### Plan the _climb_

Getting there

Best by car from Avignon or Orange, about an hour; **Bédoin** and **Sault** are the usual bases.

When to go

June to September; the summit road closes with snow in winter, and the wind can shut it any month.

Where to stay

**Crillon le Brave**, a perched village turned hotel, with the giant filling the view.

Read next

[The Gorges du Verdon](https://the-south-of-france.com/en/provence/gorges-du-verdon/)

E

About the Author · L’auteur

#### Élise Marchand

Travel Editor — based in Marseille

Élise has been driving the back roads of the Midi for the journal since its first issue. She pays for her own rooms and her own lunches — and only writes about the places she would return to.

[More by Élise Marchand — voir ses articles](https://the-south-of-france.com/en/journal/)

Continue reading · À lire ensuite

### More from the _South_

[

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