Mont Ventoux is a mountain in the Provence region of Southern France.

The so-called Bald Mountain is known through its inclusion in the Tour de France.

Venteux means windy in French and it can get just that at the summit, where the wind blows at over 90 km/h (56 mph) for 240 days a year.

The road over the mountain is often closed due to high winds, especially the col des tempêtes ("storm pass") just before the summit, which is particularly known for its strong winds.

Mont Ventoux, although geologically part of the Alps, is often considered separate from them, due to no mountains of a similar height nearby.

he top of the mountain is bare limestone without vegetation or trees and its isolated position overlooking the valley of the Rhône ensures that it dominates the entire region and can be seen from many miles away on a clear day.

The Mount Ventoux Regional Nature Park was established in summer 2020 to support the the environmental protection and the economic and social development of Provence's mountain.

There are also stags, roe deer, chamois, wild boars in the last few years, the reintroduction of the wolf.

Ventoux had been declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, and the area was long known for species from the African continent, such as the pomegranate trees which grew at the foot of the mountain.

At the summit are small poppies more commonly found in the frozen solitudes of Greenland!

The Egyptian vulture and golden eagle are among some 150 species of bird, 1500 of plants and the 500 types of butterfly.

www.parcduventoux.fr

Useful links

​ www.provenceguide.com