Sometimes you travel to a place because you read something about it, and sometimes you travel to a place because someone you met told you about it, and sometimes you travel to a place because you are damn lost. Alas, being ‘damned lost’ is getting harder and harder these days with road signs, tourist information centers, brochures and Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) in our cars and in every modern phone. So we arrived at Les Baux because of the first two reasons.
Les Baux-en-Provence is in the foothills of Alpilles, an area that is arid and mountainous. It is not far from Saint Remy-en-Provence where we stayed for a couple nights a few weeks ago. The ‘mistral winds’ that Lisa wrote about a few posts ago blow strong here due to the topography. There are two types of these winds that blow for about 100 days of the year, “Clear Mistral” and the rarer “Black Mistral.” The later comes with rain. We were lucky enough to experience the black mistral at dusk.
Knowing that the flocks of tourist that are bused around France everyday and in all directions are fairly predictable; the buses arrive between 9 and 10am and then head home between 3 and 4pm. Some of these buses are coming from Paris, and some are coming from larger surrounding towns. We made a late start planning on arriving at Les Baux around 3pm, which entitled them to ample close parking to the two major attractions they chose to see.
Carrieres De Lumieres http://carrieres-lumieres.com/en/home is an art gallery/show. The woman who gives us French lessons told us about it. Les Baux was a huge mining town starting with the discovery of bauxite in the 1800s, but even long before then, limestone was mined from the surrounding mountains as building material. Carrieres De Lumieres is a giant limestone theatre. Images are choreographed with music and projected on the walls, the floors, the ceilings that are over 3 stories tall in some places and in all directions. Imagine walking in a giant cave with huge pillars and towering walls creating a labyrinth of sight and sound. The show changes every season and this year the focus was on the artwork of Marc Chagall. Mind blown. It was incredible.
Later, we headed to Chateau Les Baux which is part troglodyte cave, part chateau, and part fortress located above the village of Les Baux. The place is locked at 7pm, but if you are inside, you can stay as long as you want…bring a bottle or a picnic. During business hours, there are artisans demonstrating how to make leather and metal goods, there are demonstrations of siege devices, like the Trebuchet (they say they have the largest working one in France).
The warlords that ruled from Castle Les Baux at one time were cruel. Prisoners would be thrown off one of the look-out towers into the valley below. This valley is referred to as “the valley of Hell” and is said to have inspired Dante’s Inferno.
The famed lavender fields of the Luberon Valley are still 2 weeks away from blooming but we found a patch near the Chateau and couldn’t resist. Wahe Guru!
We planned to catch the sunset from this peak. But the best laid plans are sometimes foiled by mother nature and whilst we explored the fortress, the clear mistral winds grew darker and eventually the black mistral winds brought some light showers. The rain, driven by strong winds from the north, caused us to advance to the rear and head down through the empty village and to our rental car.
