Hilltop village carved from limestone
From a distance, you almost miss it. Les Baux-de-Provence grows out of a rocky outcrop in the Alpilles, its ruined castle and medieval houses cut from the same pale limestone as the cliffs beneath. Stone into stone – the village and the rock have been blended here for nearly a thousand years.
The village is divided into two small districts, upper and lower. In the lower part, Renaissance mansions line lanes barely wide enough for two, their doorways framing glimpses of shaded courtyards within. Galleries and boutiques selling Provençal goods slot between them – ceramics, lavender soap, olive oil pressed from the groves below.
The upper ruins, the Château des Baux, sprawl across the plateau’s summit. This medieval fortress once controlled the surrounding valleys and commanded one of the most powerful fiefdoms in southern France. Now its roofless walls and crumbling keep provide an echo of an age where attackers were once fended off.
Les Baux draws crowds in summer, and the lanes fill fast. Come early, when the light is still low and the limestone glows, or late in the afternoon when the day-trippers have gone and the stone has absorbed a warmth it will keep all evening.
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