Château des Baux-de-Provence
Back in Chicago, my British friend Heather told me to be sure to go to Les Baux, "spectacular," she called it. She was right. Just outside of St. Remy, straight roads lined with plane trees suddenly turn into rocky hills with winding roads, leading up and up and up. At the top of the climb is the medieval town of Les Baux, with the ruins of a stupendous castle towering over the lower city.
The area around the watch tower
The view from the watchout area back toward the chateau
Once you finally find a parking space (we found one on the other side of the mountain, going down, and walked back up to the village), you climb steep streets through the little town to enter the ruins. The first site to greet you is the cemetery. We were both surprised and startled to see that many of the names were of people who had passed away in the last 10 years.
Overlooking the fertile valleys
Looking out over the valleys, you could see why this location was so commanding and desirable. The flat part of the top is covered with reproductions of various huge military assault tools, such as battering rams, which I believe are used (in warmer weather) to demonstrate medieval fighting and assault techniques. (Tom was taken with the battering ram.)
Medieval-style battering ram and assault equipment
