Hiking to Bibémus
The path that leads to the Carrières de Bibémus starts just past the Lycée Paul Cézanne. I took my first hike to the areas east of the Bibémus plateau on January 31, a month ago today: a bruising 15-miler that reminded me that I belong off the couch and on the trail. I had been living in France for just over a month by then. My partner moved here to take up a postdoctoral research position in Aix-en-Provence; I needed a change of scenery from Mountain View, California, so I moved on Christmas Day to France. After several hikes here, I realized that I’ve actually wanted to have more views of mountains and quiet, open spaces — and less frustration with living in the shadow of Google while contending with career moves and watching my well-heeled friends walk off to tenure-track jobs and fancy consultancies. Near the end of my time at Stanford and in the Bay Area, my hikes in the Santa Cruz mountains became a central pleasure of my life: As I filled my lungs with the conifer-tinged air of Provence, I knew I had found a fitting successor. ...