Les Baux en Provence

Thursday 12 June 2014

Blog post by the mother - again!

 

Actually I'm quite happy to write today's blog post because we went to visit two things that I was keen to see.  The village of  Les-Baux-de-Provence which is touted as one of the most beautiful villages in France and Carrieres de Lumieres in the old quarries of Les Baux.   Les jeunes were very excited about going out today...



Actually, they were both OK but one does have to look like a cool and slightly aloof teenager at times.

Les-Baux-de-Provence is a little village perched high in the Alpilles with a castle right at the top.  The streets are narrow and cobbled and it is in almost entirely the way I had imagined a Provencal village should look (tatty tourist shops aside).  If you look down from the village you can see gorgeous mas nestled into the hillside looking like they have almost emerged from the rocks.

In Les Baux there are a number of BonBon Shops, the sucettes (lollipops) in which made Miss 9's eyes light up with delight.

What made my eyes light up with delight were all the little treasures that we found as we walked through the village and the amazing views down into the valley.

We did a wee bit of rock climbing to get this great view from a cave just below the castle.

The kids all love the challenge of a bit of climbing - although this climb wasn't as challenging as the one we did with the cousins in Dovedale.

After visiting the village we walked down to the site of the old limestone quarries which provided the stone from which the chateau and houses of Les Baux are constructed.  The quarries were in operation until 1935 and then remained unused until 1977 when they were first used for audio visual shows.  It is difficult to show how incredible the quarries are and their massive scale.  Most of the chambers are 14 metres high.  The photos below show the outer quarries which are incredible in themselves.

The inner quarries however are what we went to see.  Unfortunately we couldn't take any photos but if you look at this link you will get an idea of the exhibition we went to see which featured the work of the Viennese school, Gustav Klimt, Schiel, and Hundertwasser and was set to classical music.  Mr 11 came up to me during the show and said "I thought this would be really stink but I'm really glad we came.  It's amazing!".
We got back to Mas Aurelia in plenty of time for our afternoon swim and then everyone got tidied up for dinner en ville.

We went to l'Estagnol in St Remy and had a lovely evening despite the ominous clouds that were gathering.  The predicted rain came to nothing unfortunately as we needed it to break the incredible warmth and stuffiness of the evening.  I'm not complaining though - would much rather be too hot in Provence than too cold at home.