LUBERON WALKS: Niolon to La Redonne on the old Customs Trail along the coast (8km

This is perhaps the «wildest» part of the coast just east of Marseille (Cote Bleau) and this particular stretch is as hard to walk as anything you might have walked in the Calanques between Marseille and Cassis. The stretch from La Redonne to Carry-le-Rouet was pretty boring (mostly on surfaced roads in residential areas), so I don’t recommend that. However, the trail along the coast line from Tamaris westwards to Carro (and a bit further) can be recomended for easy walking and good access to swimming.

From the Niolon train station (we took the train from La Redonne) you stay on the northern side of the train line heading west. At Calanque du Jonquiere (9) after only some 10 minutes you take sharply left downwards in order to cross this valley. When you are up on the ather side, you cross over to the southern side of the rail tracks and keeps this side for a while.

After another 25 minutes, you are crossing over the valley above Calanque du Riflard. Make sure you take left just before the tunnel here (the tunnel has a vertical wall at the end) and walk «around» this tunnel.

At Calanque de l’Ervine you have a nice small beach (about 1h15min from train station). You cross the valley here by walking under the railway and when you are up on the other side you stay on the northern side for a little while. You will see that the path has now been joined by a GR-route (red & white markers) and make sure you stay with these markers all the way to Mejean (lots of smaller paths take off in all directions).

You will reach Grand Mejean about 2,5h after leaving Niolon (net of any swimming). Here you have the restaurant Au Mange Tout made «famous» from the French film «La Villa». You could book a table for lunch here on telephone 04-4245-9168. (If it’s full here, you have another restaurant at La Redonne.)

After Grand Mejean, you take the road passed Petit Mejean, but almost at the top of the hill you turn left (116) and just follow the red & white markers along this road almost till the end. About 150 meters before the end of the road, you see the markers takes you down some stairs towards the sea. You are now entering the big Calanque des Figuieres (about 30 minutes from Mejean) and you have a small beach down on you immediate left and a larger beach over at the other side of the bay (with som shade).

At the end south-western end of the bay, you see stairs going up. We took these stairs in order to follow the shoreline as much as we could. You walk up the stairs and down on the other side into what could appear as another bay. Here you have Plage Naturiste de la Cote Bleue and you might have to get your feet wet in order to cross all the way over to Calanque des Anthenors. But over there, you have the possibility of swimming (145). If you do not like to walk passed naked people sunbathing and swimming (or the possibility of getting your feet wet), try to see where the GR-trail takes off from Calanque des Figuieres and follow this upwards. This will take you on the trail that goes along the top of the hill along the shore line and you will end up in Calanque des Anthenors (145) where there is a small beach.

From Calanque des Anthenors (145) you continue up the stairs and follow the red & white markers the last stretch in to La Redonne (about 1 hour from Calanque des Figuires), where there is a restaurant, perhaps a food truck and some small beaches. The train station is just up the road.

Basic information:

Duration:      4h (net – this is a hard walk)
Distance:      8 km.
Ascent:         300 m
Difficulty: Moderate +
Start/finish: La Renonne to Niolon.
Map:   IGN
GPX-file: Download from VisoRando link (see below)