Club 3A

Grinding up a steep trail on your bike, when the effort becomes too intense, there is only one solution: to assume a dancer’s position, on the tip of the toes…

I grew up in Strasbourg in Alsace, a province which straddles the border between France and Germany on the banks of the Rhine. I worked for many years in the field of finance with major international banks in Frankfurt, New York and London. Suffice it to say that in my daily life I have spent more time gazing at computer screens than snowy peaks; for me, nature has long been a luxury reserved for my few weeks off.

In 2005, it was time to change my life, so I followed my father’s footsteps into the wonderful world of wine. With my Conseil Sommelier diploma in hand, I moved my family to Chile where I worked for four years creating an estate in the Colchagua Valley before returning to Vaison-la-Romaine, in Provence, where we now operate a guest house, L’Échappée-Vaison-Ventoux. I now represent Château La Nerthe, historic organic estate of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, to the four corners of the planet.

Working in a wine estate requires one to stay in symbiosis with nature, adapting to the vagaries it presents to us, vintage after vintage. Wine is a unique product each year, created day by day out of the ecosystem and the biodiversity of the vineyard. It is a concentrated mixture of nature and hard work in a glass.

I ran my first marathon in 1991 and since then, the taste for long-distance efforts has never left me. I naturally moved on to greater challenges: the 100km of Millau and Biel/Bienne (40 years to the day after my father) or the Marathon des Sables (250 km, 5-day self-sufficient race in the Sahara desert). Another ‘stroll’ led me to the summit of Aconcagua, the colossus of the Americas, at 6962m.

When you live at the foot of the mythical Mount Ventoux, where the most beautiful and the most dramatic pages of the Tour de France have been written, you really must get on a bike, right? The 21km of uninterrupted ascent up to 1912m altitude has become my favorite playground in all seasons, in all weather, from all sides and by all means.

On the slopes of Mount Ventoux, it is not uncommon to experience all four seasons in the same day, especially when the rascal Mistral wind invites himself to the party! During the ascent that begins in the midst of fields of lavender and olive trees, the essences of Provence gradually give way to subarctic plants, culminating in a lunar landscape with a… Quebecois climate?

One of my recent challenges has been to climb this ‘Giant of Provence’, as the Ventoux is affectionately known here, six times in the same day by bike, thus exceeding the elevation of Mount Everest. The craziest, I think, was pedaling from the Old Port of Marseille to the top of Ventoux and back to Marseille on the equivalent of a Bixi bike – 28 kg and only three gears. That is 300 km round trip in 21 hours – lunch stop with a magnum of rosé from Provence included, of course.

According to the Larousse dictionary, an adventure is an “undertaking remarkable for its large number difficulties and the uncertainty of its outcome”. But it is close to home that one finds the most beautiful adventures. And even closer: within yourself.

The adventure and the journey take place inside of us. To truly get away from it all, you must go beyond your limits and not let life pass you by. Otherwise, one risks remaining a simple tourist; not just geographically but also a tourist of one’s own life.

The young people that the Foundation supports rarely have a choice, as they are forced to live their lives in accelerated, concentrated mode. I would like to help them in my own way through my fundraising and (who knows?) introduce some of them to our wonderful region and this magical mountain.

With this in mind, I have set myself a challenge: to climb Mont Ventoux 100 times in the year 2022, an effort that will involve 160 km of elevation gain – twice the altitude of the Virgin Galactic space flights. Like Charles Baudelaire in Le Voyage, I want to “travel without steam and without a sail!” but certainly with enthusiasm and determination.

Although my adventure will often be solitary, it is by nature in perfect synchrony with the mission of the Foundation: to challenge oneself on physical and psychological levels – while keeping pleasure in sight! My solitary adventure is by nature collaborative.

I am convinced that at the end of this adventure, it will be me thanking the Foundation for launching me on this journey of a lifetime: our limits are so much broader than we think. One crank of the pedal at a time.

Viajar es vestirse de loco
es decir “no me importa”
es querer regresar.
Regresar valorando lo poco
saboreando una copa,
es desear empezar.

Viajar, Gabriel García Márquez