Introduction

The Gorges de Régalon is the deepest canyon in the Luberon Massif. You can't see it from the road and you don't even recognize it when you are in front of it, this crack in the rock is so narrow. The deep part is almost 700 meters long, but you spend almost an hour there during which you go from surprise to surprise.

The proposed tour leaves at the first opportunity towards the west, we arrive at an old farm to go down again by a pass in the cliff. The cross valley La Libaude brings us back to the starting point.

The facts

8,3 km total distance

3 h walk time

290 m total elevation

orientation average

mark 65% of the total distance

30% forest roads

20% Trails with scramble passages

20% easy trails

20% moderate trails

10% hard-surfaced quiet side streets

dangers rocks to climb

children yes, but it's long

useful picnic stuff

required hiking boots, hiking equipment and water

GPS coordinates (WGS84) of start and end point 43.75896956689384,5.156695641090914

downloads

Public transport

Access to the Gorges du Régalon is via the road north of the Durance river. Here only bus line 908 runs between Cavaillon, Cadenet, Pertuis and Cucuron about ten times a day. The bus stop closest to the canyon is called Logis Neuf. Get off the bus, cross the Canal de Carpentras and turn right. After less than 400 meters, follow the road that leads to the access to the Gorges de Régalon. You can cut short through a loose pine forest. We come to the parking lot at the beginning of the gorge. This is where the hike described below begins. Information about the bus: Zou! (only french).

Access by car

The access to the Régalon canyon is north of the Durance river between Avignon and Manosque. More precisely, it is located between Cavaillon and Pertuits in the municipality of Cheval-Blanc. From the D973 road, a sign points to Gorges de Régalon.

Useful parking spaces

La Tuilère car park is at the end of the access road and at the fork on the right. The places at the beginning and before the crossing are the most shaded during the day and especially in the afternoon. The car park is free, but it can be very quickly full in season and during the weekend.

Hints

This gorge is well known and the enthusiasm for this site is only broken by the long years of forced closure due to rockfalls. These problems can return to the agenda at any time, erosion advances. The verticality of the walls and the roots of vegetation make this passage risky at all times.

There are several passages with rocks to climb. This can cause problems for less experienced people. It's not just a walk. There is no technical help in these delicate passages.

The marking to the gorge and in the gorge is clear and obvious. It is much less present or non-existent on the rest of the tour. The orientation is then sometimes difficult even if one realizes very quickly an error.

At the exit of the gorge, we only made a little more than a quarter of the whole tour. You still need resources for the rest of it!

The gorge faces south. The GPS signal is good enough for the circumstances.

The whole region is a zone with a high risk of forest fires. In summer, but also in other seasons when it is very dry or by strong winds, access to the forest areas can be regulated. As a result, the roads may be closed to traffic and/or the trails prohibited to hikers. Current information: Map for access to the forests of the Vaucluse department (only french). The map shows the colours green, yellow, orange and red which correspond to levels of danger.

The sections

1. Gorges de Régalon in ascent
2. To Ferme des Mayorques
3. Down to La Libaude
4. Back via La Roquette and Rioufret

Section 1: Gorges de Régalon

➙ 2,5 km ... 1 h 10 min ➚ 125 m ➘ 5 m ↝ easy

5% hard-surfaced quiet side streets, with marks

5% easy trails, with marks

5% forest roads, with marks

5% easy trails, with marks

5% forest roads, with marks

75% Trails with scramble passages, faulty marks

We advance towards the large car park and look for access to the path at the signs on the left. The path itself is clearly visible.

The marked trail is either in the river bed, or to the left of it.

We arrive further in an olive grove and we see in front the cliffs forming the lower part of the gorge.

Stay here on the track and do not return to the bed of the river, nor pass through the olive groves.

Finally, we are guided by fences towards the access to the gorge. The various positions given below are indicated in walking minutes from this beginning of the gorge. The time count is generous, i.e. with breaks for taking photos.

The cut of the canyon begins immediately. A panel recalls the dangers and the fragility of the place. Then, we simply walk at the bottom of the canyon dug here six million years ago during the rise of the Alps. The side walls are still far away, but their height is immediately impressive.

The canyon ist not straight in a line. After a few moments, we are in a much darker environment. It is only after several minutes that a little more light enters a somewhat wider area. Sunlight is also blocked by various trees and ivy growing along the edge of the cliff and in the rock wall.

In one of these open areas follows five minutes after the start of the gorge a step of rocks consolidated by limestone concretions. The rock looks smooth, but it's not slippery. The easiest passage is at the bottom center and top left.

At eight minutes, we pass under a large rock wedged two meters above the bottom of the gorge. This is all the more surprising as the canyon is here otherwise wide open.

Soon after follows another neck.

At ten minutes, you have to climb an inclined plane to the left of a large rock. As before, the rock is not smooth despite its rounded appearance.

At 12 minutes are recently fallen rocks in the gorge, their sides show fresh breaks. This reminds us that erosion is a continuous process. Currently it is no longer the water that actively cuts the gorge. It is caused by the temperature differences and by the roots of the plants that nibble especially the upper part of the cliffs.

You also have to look down. The ground is strewn with stones of different sizes and the terrain becomes more and more uneven.

At 15 minutes, we enter a natural tunnel which at first seems very dark, but we quickly reach the upper end.

The north exit is by advancing straight without taking the climb in the opposite direction.

Just after follows the narrowest passage of the gorge. In some places two people cannot stand side by side. Stones that seem no bigger than soccer balls are stuck in various heights between the rock walls that remain tight to the top.

Narrow parts alternate with wider areas. The visible upper edge of the cliff is also constantly changing. It makes hiking here fun.

It is rare to see the high edge of the cliffs in the sun. This is only possible in wider areas.

The slightly more complicated things start not far upstream.

At 29 minutes, you have to climb another pile of stones wedged between the right wall and a larger rock on the left. It's a little vertical, but narrow enough to be able to hold on well aside.

At 31 minutes, you have to climb a cluster stuck in this narrow zone. It's not difficult because you can hold on well.

In the next minute the canyon narrows massively while the remaining open crack is inclined. There are other stones stuk here and this is the most difficult part of the tour. Pieces of wood help to climb to the first stone, then you have to loop through and continue climbing by keeping to the right.

At 35 minutes we arrive in an area widened by caves on both sides. The gorge then remains lower and wider.

Huge ivies take root at the bottom of the canyon while exposing their leaves much higher in the cliffs.

At 40 minutes, we arrive at the first possibility to exit the gorge at 239 meters above sea level. You can exit here towards the east and the Vallon du Canebier. However, it is not a quick return to the starting point because you have to go roughly all the way to Mérindol before you can return to the car park at the foot of the cliffs.

We therefore continue beyond the old marker and the recent signpost towards the north and towards Agarnier.

After an hour, you cross a barrier of the national forest office and a little higher is a big crossroads. We turn left here.

Section 2: Ferme des Mayorques

➙ 1,5 km ... 25 min ➚ 85 m ➘ 10 m ↝ average

40% easy trails, without marks

60% forest roads, without marks

So we start from the wide area to the left. No sign is here mark anything. A cross marking indicates that the long distance trail GR6 does not pass through here.

Our path has some private green markers. It comes out through a side valley.

After a little over five minutes, the path turns sharply to the left. A few minutes later, you can turn left again towards a slightly more open natural viewpoint because the forest here is less dense. You can also see towards the upper part of the Gorges de Régalon and the crest of the Massif du Luberon.

However, we return to the path which continues south for another two minutes before turning right and heading west.

We sometimes see green marks on a white background on the trees. These are not hike markings, but limits of forest estates. Despite this lack of markings, the path is obvious.

Five minutes later, you arrive near dry stone walls and fairly dry fields. There are several parallel paths and tracks here. It is preferable to keep to the right when leaving the path along the edge of the forest estate. A farm track is now our way. It quickly resumes the westward direction.

This agricultural track is not quite straight. We pass a few cedars that have come down from the Luberon ridge.

Just past these cedars are some curious limestone rocks with knobs on the right.

The track ascents a little and goes to the left to then resume heading west.

We arrive on a cattle gate. Straight ahead we see the Mayorques farm which is our next stop. The old sign on the other side of the gate prohibits passage, but there is none on the side we came from. We spoke about it in 2023 to a guard we met below and she said she wants to invest that. If prohibitions are visible while climbing out from the Gorges de Régalon, you must go further south (left) at the latest at the exit of the forest onto the fields.

The farm gate is open. The farm is located on a barely cultivable arid limestone plateau. The farm has always been very isolated, but the use of this difficult land is explained by the impossibility of cultivating the valley of the Durance because of untimely floods before its regulation with various dams on the Durance and the Verdon in the 1960s.

One tries to bring this farm back to life through associations and with the help of the Luberon regional natural park.

The exposed stone parts are the sheepfold, the more modern part is the shepherd's accommodation.

Under the old barn are signs that explain the attempt to revive the activity of this farm. It is all the more difficult with climate change, the lack of water is flagrant on this large limestone plateau to the south under the Luberon ridge.

Section 3: Les Mayorques - La Libaude

➙ 1,8 km ... 40 min ➚ 30 m ➘ 180 m ↝ average

50% moderate trails, few marks

50% easy trails, without marks

From the Ferme des Mayorques, we leave the gate and thus we walk first mainly towards the south and towards Barrié. We are again on a marked path, here in yellow.

The marked path is slightly uphill towards a barely perceptible pass marked by a post without a sign and a large cairn.

The term Crau designates in Provençal a flat and stony plain covered with grass which is a more or less abundant grazing ground for herds of sheep and goats.

Going up, we see back on the main ridge of the western Luberon.

However, we continue straight to the south.

On the other side of the pass, the slope is more noticeable and you come to a notch.

The descent in hairpins ist fast and chaotic. The path goes quite far to the right under the notch.

There is a good view of the plain of the Durance from here.

Arriving on a slightly more earthy flat area, we are in front of a fork. We take the direction of the yellow cross marking on the right. So we leave the marked trail again.

This path is clearly visible and very flat. It undulates between trees and rocks in a westerly direction. Do not descend by rocks on the left.

This hunter's path descends further more frankly towards a forest track. Turn left and further downhill here.

This barely passable track makes a wide bend to take us through the cross valley La Libaude. A current of water has pierced the cliff bar here perpendicularly. On either side of the cross valley rises a high rocky ridge 500 meters long.

You can see the natural passage better from the south side.

Section 4: La Libaude - Rioufret

➙ 2,5 km ... 40 min ➚ 45 m ➘ 90 m ↝ average

40% forest roads, faulty marks

25% moderate trails, without marks

15% forest roads, few marks

20% hard-surfaced quiet side streets, few marks

The forest track is concreted shortly after to pass into Le Gour. It is a small portion of canyon formed by the same stream that pierced the cross valley further upstream.

The track takes us slightly downhill towards La Roquette. However, we pass above to take the Piste du Riouffret (or Chemin de la Montagne).

When we are on that higher track, it's time to look right. A hole in the rock and the remaining wall of a medieval tower can be seen in the ridge further south.

This section of wall is all that remains of the Tour de la Roquette tower.

The territory of Cheval-Blanc, the municipality in which we are located, was part of the possessions of the Counts of Toulouse and then of the Comtat Venaissin. It formed a border with the Kingdom of France, of which there remain the ruins of this watchtower at La Roquette.

We keep to the left on the path when the track descends to the right. This avoids a loss of height.

We come back to the forest track a little further, but in order to cross it. This avoids going up to Barrié.

The small path first descends towards a kind of depression which seems to have been an ocher mine. You have to go up here first to the left.

When the bushes become denser, you have to turn right.

Here begins a steep slope. This are about thirty meters of positive elevation. It's the last climb of the day!

We come back on a forest track to Les Bastides. A few minutes later, we pass the hamlet of Rioufret. The name means fresh river and there is a source of drinking water here, the only one on this whole tour.

A few minutes later, we are back at the starting point.

Sources and additional information

It is better to use a good topographic hiking map: this tour is on the IGN maps "Cavaillon Fontaine-de-Vaucluse", scale 1:25000, 3142OT and "Salon-de-Provence", scale 1:25000, 3143OT.

If you don't want to bother with a paper map, you can also use mapping apps on your cell phone. On the one hand, it is the Géoportail app from the official map service IGN. However, it requires access to the data network and this is sometimes difficult in canyons or remote locations.

Alternatively, you can use apps that store data directly on the device. They're generally not free, but they don't cost much. We mainly use OSMAnd, here it is possible to add contour lines, relief shading, markings and others. To store this data on your phone you need a lot of space.

Of course, one needs access to satellites for the GPS signal with any app. In some canyons this is not the case. Therefore, do not rely on the position shown, but read the map on your phone as you would read it on paper. Most apps are available for Android and iPhone. The applications usually allow us to record the route travelled and also view the GPS files offered for each of our hikes.

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