04 - Valensole: Draille and GR4

On a cloudy day, the group gathers near the crossroads of the 4 ways to leave 2 cars in place. Their occupants get into the other cars, and we head to the start of this hike, at the junction of the D6 (road between Manosque and Valensole) and the road that leads to St Grégoire.
We begin by descending towards the chapel of the Trinity, taking a few photos and placing a geocache. We want to head down towards the ravine of the forge to start the draye, but the path that leads there hasn't been used in a long time and is overgrown with brambles. We prefer to go back up towards the cars and follow the road to St Grégoire to resume the planned route, all downhill... and the cache to discover.
A draille (or draye), whose name comes from the Provençal draio which means way, rural path, designates a path created by the passage of sheep herds, mainly used during the transhumance season.
This ancient draye of the herds from Arles (toponymy that can still be found on the IGN 1:25000 map) which notably crosses the Plateau de Valensole, has seen hundreds of thousands of ewes pass through for centuries, migrating from the Alps (Vallée de la Blanche and Ubaye) to the Camargue and Crau.
As we go, we pass a few isolated farms. The rain starts to fall just before the picnic break, but we find a thicket of trees to shelter the hikers from its foliage.
We resume the road towards the D82 (road between Manosque and Gréoux les Bains), which we cross and follow for a short while towards the GR4 that we will now follow.
We will soon cross the D82 again before tackling the second climb of the day (the first being between the chapel and the cars) towards the abandoned house of Grand Devançon. We don't lose anyone in the well as the photos might suggest, but we stop to admire what remains of a home that must have had quite a stature when it was still maintained.
Now there is only a short, somewhat steep descent left to bring us back to the two cars left near the crossroads of the 4 ways. All the drivers crowd into the cars to go fetch the others at the start and return to this parking lot.
Everyone gathers once again to drink hot tea before parting ways after a somewhat rainy day, but it doesn’t matter.