A Lazy Day in Les Alpilles: Les Baux de Provence

“Traveling is like flirting with life. It’s like saying, ‘I would stay and love you, but I have to go; this is my station.’” – Lisa St. Aubin de Teran 

We had one full day remaining before we had to move on again and we wanted to take it easy. I proposed we have an early breakfast in nearby Les Baux before coming home for a day of swimming and packing. But as per usual we threw our plans out the window and spent hours at Les Baux.

The drive from St Remy was typical les Alpilles twists and turns until we arrived at the car parks approaching the town perched on an rocky outcrop. It was nine o'clock and we got a great car park, in front of the guards cabin, but noticed that many people were arriving on our tail.

The town started out deserted but as we ate our crepes we noticed that the numbers where increasing but it was by no means crowded. We walk to the top of the town and found the castle, while we hadn't planned to visit we couldn't resist and coming completely unprepared we toasted ourselves in the hot sunshine while we wandered around the ruins with our audio guides. The kids loved the working recreations of the machines of war such as battering rams and catapults.

We had purchased tickets which also included entry to the Carriers et Lumineries, an amazing spectacle, in an old stone quarry at the bottom of town. The corridors of the quarry, where stone blocks were cut to build the town and its walls, provided the perfect backdrop for the Lumineries. Artworks by one of my favourite artists, Klimt, were beamed on the walls, and then constructed and deconstructed using computer animation. 

We are pretty strict with the kids when it comes to audio visual entertainment, but I am so glad we took both kids to see the Lumineries. It was wonderful to watch them running around while the images were projected on the the walls and floors and they attempted open doors of buildings or dance in red poppies painted by Klimt.

It was wonderful to get a dose of art without looking for strategies to entertain the kids in a gallery. Another perfect day..the packing on the other hand was less than perfect and after little sleep the next day was challenging to say the least.

At this point I would moan about why oh why didn't we stay in one spot for a month but as I am writing this five days later, sitting in a cute gite in a camping ground in the Dordogne I am glad we moved on or we would have missed out on this fabulous place. And as we have moved on yet again, before I was able to get this post up, this time to the Loire Valley (sorry I had a week of VERY slow internet making uploading photos a nightmare) I won't moan about travel days because at the end of a travel day we arrive in an amazing place. About enough of that, I have yet to tell you about Avignon and our amazing day tour to the Luberon and so many other wonderful adventures. Good things come to those who wait.