The perils of a December mini-break in the south of France were highlighted when a huge band of rain swept across the country on the first full day of our trip. Even the Meteo Blue “Where2Go” feature was powerless to identify any possibilities of dry rock, but the tailing off of the deluge in the early afternoon had us donning cags for a wander down to the Calanque du Sugiton “for a look”. All we needed was a crag with a built in umbrella…

As you near the base of the calanque, the huge brown roofs of the Paroi des Toits come into view. Plenty of 7s and 8s but also a few more amenable pitches that make it up to the roof rather than trying to go through it.

La Devaluation is given 6b+, which in the soapy post-deluge humidity was surely 6b+++. It would be pretty up-hill even in immaculate conditions.

With a YECTOYD in the bag we wandered down to the water’s edge…

… before enjoying a superb sunset as the weather system finally passed.

Next day was much more promising and we set off to do the two-route enchainment on La Candelle which is featured in Parois de Légende. Well-groomed paths lead from parking at the Luminy University campus almost down to sea level in about an hour, with our objective looming overhead.

Part one is Civa on the Temple on Le Socle de la Candelle – the base of the candle. Five to seven pitches (depending what you link or don’t) up to 6a, taking a natural right to left diagonal across this impressive lump of limestone.

Pitch one is a wake up call – 5c+ feeling more like E1/2 with about 8 bolts in 30m. Worth taking a handful of wires and a couple of small cams.

Happily it’s steady away after that, with magnificent views down to the sea…

… and over to Sugiton, looking more attractive than the previous day.

We took the righthand variation at the top, with a couple of rusty pegs and slightly less reliable rock where the rest of the route had been exemplary. Maybe stay left…

Part Two continues after a walk over to La Grande Candelle proper.

Arriving, we were a bit put out to spot a team of three moving slowly above us (on the mid-height break just above Jake), but fortunately our route, La Centrale, takes a line to the left, topping out through the huge brown corner system.

The 5c first pitch is something of a sandbag…

… a theme that continues with the 6a+ P2 which felt worthy of E2. More traddy climbing into the Gogarthesqu upper corner and a wild traverse leftwards to the foot of the final crux 6b+/c corner.

Brutal, but they’d obviously been saving the bolts from further down, so the gear is bombproof. Topped out before 3pm…

… but still managed to catch the sunset owing to a minor navigational snafu – from the Col de la Candelle you want to descend leftwards on the green flashed path.

Fab day out: A dozen pitches and about 350m of TD to the most iconic summit in the Calanques – plus a couple of PdeL ticks into the bargain!