One of my goals for this year is to really explore Provence. It has completely surpassed its reputation. It has a little of everything- there are more cute picturesque villages than you can shake a stick at, olive groves, mountains, valleys, castles, and beaches.
Last friday I visited Les Baux, one of the priettiest towns in Provence. Getting there from Aix was a little complicated. I went with two other friends. We took a train to Marseille, where we had to wait for 40 minutes before getting a train to Arles. From arles we got a bus to another small town whose name I have already forgotten. I'll have to ask the others.
The town consisted of a school, a church, 4 bakeries, and a store that sold nothing but fire extingquishers. and thats about it. We stopped at a bakery to get baguettes and asked for directions to Les Baux. It was only 4 km, easy walking distance. We ate a picnic lunch and set off again.
About ten minutes into the walk we decided to explore a path leading off to our left and stumbled upon one of the prettiest parks I have ever seen. There were large rock mounds surrounded by rosemary bushes and pine trees. We climbed several of the mounds and had a great view of the town and countryside.
It seems almost ridiculous that there are so much natural beauty here.
After that magical little detour we continued on towards Les Baux. When we started passing large fields filled with olive trees we knew we were getting close.
We reached the city about 20 minutes and several photo ops later, though we had to climb a long flight of awarkdly small stairs to get to it. Worth it. The town is small and pretty much dead since its still not tourist season, but it was obnoxiously quaint and crowned with a castle. We paid to get into the castle and picked up our free audio guide. We listened to it for about 5 minutes and then decided it would be more fun to just climb all over the hill and explore on our own.
It was like the worlds largest and oldest jungle gym. There is just enough left of the foundations and castle that, with a little imagination, you can tell what was what. We climbed down to the dungeons, played with the recreated battery ram, and crawled through the kitchen.
From what was left of the tallest tower you could see mountains, olive fields, stone cliffs, the town, and way off in the distance there was a little patch of sparkle- the sea.
After we'd warn ourselves out in the castle we head back towards the bus stop in the first small town. We had some time to kill so we stopped at a morrocan restaurant for thé à la menthe.
a bus and two trains later we were back in Aix and exhausted. I slept very well.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire