Les Baux-de-Provence

Hilltop Village And Castle Ruins In The Alpilles, With The CarrièRes Des LumièRes Immersive Art Shows Projected Inside A Former Limestone Quarry · Les Baux-de-Provence, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur

Les Baux-de-Provence is a small village built on a spur of white limestone in the Alpilles hills, between Arles and Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. In the Middle Ages it was the seat of the powerful lords of Baux, and the ruins of their castle still cover the top of the rock, with towers, cut stone rooms and replicas of siege engines looking out over olive groves toward the Camargue. Below the ruins, the village is a maze of stone lanes, Renaissance houses, galleries and gift shops, with very few permanent residents. The main draw for many visitors is the Carrières des Lumières, a former limestone quarry just outside the village where huge moving projections of paintings, set to music, cover the walls and floor. The programme changes each year, and the quarry stays cool even in summer. Across the ravine lies the Val d'Enfer, a jumble of rocks said to have inspired Dante. The surrounding hills produce olive oil under its own AOP label. In summer, parking is paid and hard to find, and crowds fill the lanes by late morning.

Les Baux-de-Provence, 13520, Bouches-du-Rhône, Les Baux-de-Provence, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, France

The village lanes are open at all hours, but shops, galleries and cafés mostly keep daytime hours and many close in winter or on quieter weekdays. The Château des Baux, the castle ruins, opens every day for most of the year with longer hours from spring to early autumn and shorter hours in winter, and siege-engine demonstrations and medieval events run on set days in the school holidays; confirm the calendar. The Carrières des Lumières is open most of the year with timed tickets, long hours in summer and shorter ones in winter, and it usually closes for a few weeks in early winter while the new programme is installed, so check before travelling. Buying tickets online for a set slot is strongly advised. The car parks around the village are open all day and are paid for most of the year. Olive oil mills in the valley keep their own shop hours and are busiest during the harvest in late autumn. The Val d'Enfer paths are open, but access to the Alpilles massif can be restricted on days of high fire risk in summer.

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