We took a beautiful hours drive north of Aix en Provence today to visit Les Baux de Provence. This is a medieval town that has been preserved and turned into a tourist town. Touted as one of the most beautiful villages in France,it sits high on a hill top with the ruins Chateau Baux at the top.
Once arriving in Baux our first stop was Carrières de Lumieres. This is where the old limestone quarry caves have been turned into a large multimedia art gallery. This activity was recommended to us from our wonderful "landlords" for the month and did not disappoint. A spectacular show where famous artist works are displayed encasing the caves and set to music. (My description is horrible and does not do it any justice.). Little R loved watching the walls of the cave and for a quite while was singing along to the music. I really believe that the enjoyed it as much as J and I did.
After the light show we headed to the village of Baux for lunch and to tour around. The town is beautiful. The streets are lined with small boutiques, some beautiful Provence tourist shops, and restaurants. As we wondered our way up towards the Chateau Baux we popped into a few of the clothing stores and linen shops. One of the things I love about shopping in Provence is that in almost every store you go into you are greater with a warm bonjour and friendly au revior when you leave. It just makes the shopping experience feel that much more personal.
We finished our day off with a quick tour of Chateau Baux. After having toured Europe in my early 20's and returned in 2011 to Rome and Pompei, I was not expecting a lot from Chateau Baux. To both J and my surprise it was actually a really great place to visit. They provide a free audio guide (with the admission) as well as hold demonstrations and shows. We arrived just in time to watch a
battle and demonstration of the tools used during the medieval times. It was really well done.
On the way home we stopped in at a random winery to pick up a bottle of wine for tomorrow's dinner. So stay tuned to see how that turned out.
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