About 8 km down the road is a Bimon Dam and the lake formed by it, as a water reservoir for Aix-en-Provence. It's output flows into the "Canals of Provence" system, used for town supply and irrigation. The dam was completed about 1951, and is 86 metres high at the centre. We found it was a lot bigger than we expected.
Downstream a few kilometers is a second older dam, the Zola Dam. It was built for much the same purposes, but 100 years earlier than Bimon. As the population grew it became necessary to build the larger dam at Bimon. There are walking trails around these dams, and we decided to take a gentle stroll along the valley to see the Zola Dam.
We parked at the Bimon Dam car park and set out along the north side of the valley
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| The Bimon Dam, with Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Cross in the distance. |
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| The dam is 86 m high, with a smaller secondary dam below it. |
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| The Croix de Provence, which we visited two days ago. |
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| This houses a micro-hydro generator at the foot of the dam. |
The photo above also shows the large valve which they can open to empty the dam. One purpose of the second small dam is to diminish the force of the water coming out of this valve.
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| The track was fairly level and easy. We were passed by runners and bikers. |
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| After about an hour we could see Lake Zola below. |
After our nice level walk we came to the point where the trail descended into the valley, down to the Zola Dam. We didn't really want to do any hard climbing, but the sign said it was just 15 minutes down to the dam. So off we went.
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| Lunch overlooking Zola Dam. |
Zola Dam was built about 1850, out of stone blocks, and was the first dam to use a curved design to take the load of the water behind it. It was built by the father of the famous writer Emile Zola. Today it is not used but is maintained in working order. The water level is deliberately lowered to take any load off the dam. |
| The Zola Dam, showing the low water level on the upstream side. |
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| Below the dam are the remains of old buildings, and an aqueduct which carried the water away. |
At this point we thought we were probably about halfway around the loop, so we may as well cross the Zola Dam and return to Bimon up the other side of the valley. How hard could that be? Well, the track was wide and quite smooth, almost like a vehicle track most of the way. But unlike the first leg, this one went up and down hills all the way. My legs were still sore from our Croix de Provence trek, so they were not too happy. Fortunately they kept moving, and eventually the first dam hove back into view, a welcome sight.
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| Example of the trail markers. |
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| A quick rest admiring the view out to the south. |
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| This is a bike trail marker, apparently. |
Part way back we (I, perhaps?) decided to turn off the main trail, thinking it was about time we headed that way. Unfortunately it was wrong turn, and we went quite a long way down into the valley before we realised we were lost, and would have to retrace our steps back up to the main trail! Not a happy moment, but we did learn that those strange markers actually indicate bike trails.
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| Completing the loop. Back at the Bimon Dam, ready for a lie-down. |
