It’s a tourist trap. No way around it. Well there is, and I will explain how to beat the trap. Yet, despite it being super touristy and popular, crowded and full of parking hassle, do not give up. You must visit Carrieres de Lumieres and the perched medieval village Les-Baux-de-Provence. It was designated one of “The Most Beautiful Villages of France”.
It’s like I always say to travel purists who seek off-the-beaten-path sites – there is a good reason why some sites are super popular. And it doesn’t mean they should be excluded in the name of travel elitism.
Tickets, get your tickets!
I admit I was naive as I rolled into the Alpilles massif around noon. First mistake. No parking to be found and the line to buy tickets to the sound and light show at the old quarries, Carrieres de Lumieres, is an hour and half long. And this is in late October. We abandon, and decide to organize this visit better for tomorrow. We adjourn to our super airbnb in Avignon and in the evening I order tickets online to the light show.
The following morning at 8:30am we start the drive back there. Slowly, with the kids in the backseat. We leave the flat lands around Avignon and start our climb again to the Alpilles massif – the small limestone mountain range about 20km south of Avignon. The scenery changes to a beautiful marriage of limestone pinnacles and a green dry forest. We stop at a stunning road turn to gaze upon Les Baux village perched high on top across the valley. It is hardly discernible as it is itself cut into the mountain face itself and perfectly blends with it.
A sound and light show with Van Gogh
I booked the show for 10am and we arrive 30 minutes before. We have our pick of parking spots, all is cool, calm and misty at this hour. We enter the site with little hassle through a small metal door which abruptly closes behind us. It’s pitch dark and we can hardly see, but soon our eyes grow accustomed and the show begin.
When I say show, I mean, this is not a sit down venue, though there are some benches here and there. The site is enormous, the ceiling maybe 45 meters high, huge pillars of the Baux stone (white calcareous limestone, fine-grained) seem to threaten as they dominate the space. The show begins and we walk around the huge columns. This year, the light show projects images from the artists Van Gogh and Dreamed Japan, and the marriage between the two is stunning.
Sheer pillars of white Baux powdery stone
The quarry was closed in 1935 and was most active in the 19th century. It has been hosting light shows since 1977, and the exhibition theme changes every year, hence it’s worth revisiting. I must say the choice of images and their display with motion and fades, combined with celestial music is supremely well done. I now understand why people wait in line an hour and a half. Give it to the French to know how to display art.
The kids are livid and walk around with their jaws open between the huge cubes, and we feel like ants. My daughter tries to chase projected flowers which drop from the ceiling. My son tries in vain to photograph them. I tell him, don’t worry about documentation, register the memory inside yourself.
There is nobody pushing you out the door when the show is over. You could theoretically stay there all day. But more than 30-40 minutes and we are done and proceed to explore the part of the quarry that is outside the show in day light. It’s equally impressive, but less, and we come out with white dust on our shoes and pants.
Les Baux de Provence village
Alas, art over, we walk the beaten path to the Baux village. We climb one long staircase and arrive at the entrance to the village. One can immediately understand the allure of the place and why is has been named one of the most beautiful villages in France and has over 1.5 million visitors per year. It has only 22 residents in the actual village itself and is what I call in Provence “a village museum”. Beautiful, quaint, pretty and perfect, with seemingly every stone set in perfect composition, every restaurant terrace with the perfect exposition.
We are relatively early, but not too early for the kids to drool over colorful candy stores. I promise, after we visit the castle, and pull them further up stony sinuous streets tumbling in perfect disorder.
Baux Castle: Siege machines and defensive towers
The castle was built in the 11th century and was controlled by the princes of Baux who ruled Provence fiercely for many years. They were said to be descendants of the Biblical Three Wise Men. Hence their coat of arms was a silver star with sixteen rays. To this day you can see this silver star on a red flag as the coat of arms of the village.
As an important medieval stronghold, the fortress had a rocky military history and has been the subject of many attacks. At the end of the Baussenque Wars in the 12th century the princes of Baux were defeated. The large castle began to be renowned for its highly cultivated court and chivalrous conduct. The dynasty finally came to an end in the 15th century after the death of the last princess of Baux.
But I digress, and history doesn’t interest the kids. The audio guide doesn’t work well either and we abandon it and enjoy walking around the different sites, levels, caves, and explore siege and war machines. It’s a perfectly sunny autumn day and we enjoy climbing up to the watch towers. The stairs are narrow and cut into the rock face so one must take care, but the views from the top are glorious.
A picnic set in stone
We decide to picnic in this most strategic vantage point and imagine ourselves to be knights riding our horses below or lowly guards at the keep freezing at night. Well, we are none of those things, and begin to roll our way down the castle, down the village streets now laden with lunching tourists, and back to our car. The kids implore me to buy them an extremely over-prices lollypop at 2.5 Euros. I refuse, especially as the vendor is not so nice. We find another shop where I buy a lollypop for 1 euro.
Back to the car, it is mayhem now in Les Baux as it was when I rolled here yesterday at this time. Parking hyenas eye our precious spot as we pull out. Let them fight over it.
We are done with Les Baux. Back to Avignon.
