Our day started with coffee, tea, and croissants on a rooftop garden in Arles – so very French.
In planning the trip in and around Provence, I was a bit overwhelmed at all the cycle route options and hilltowns to visit. As a guide, I looked a number of bicycle tour companies to see what towns they included/recommended on their itineraries. Almost all had Saint-Rémy-de-Provence and a few suggested a stop at Les Baux-de-Provence - named one of the most beautiful villages in France. My friend Christine had recommended the light show at the Carrières de Lumières, and I wanted to see the Roman Aqueduct. Could we possibly fit it all in? I devised a somewhat indirect route to Avignon that took us past most of the recommendations, figuring we would decide along the way where to stop.
Shortly after leaving Arles we passed the Roman Aqueduct ruins– another reminder of how important the ability to transport water was/is to life in this region of southern France. The route took us through the small lovely provencal towns of Paradou, and Maussane-les-Alpilles before we started climbing. The ruins of an old castle dominated the landscape during the ascent so we decided to stop and visit - not realizing that this was actually the village of Les Baux-de-Provence! The village and castle ruins sit on a rocky outcrop in the Alpilles. Although once a medieval stronghold, Les Baux-en-Provence is now primarily a tourist site, with the castle ruins providing lots of space for scrambling about and taking in the impressive views of the Provence countryside to the south. We spent a bit of time doing just that!
Ruins of Roman Aqueduct along the Route de l'Aqueduct outside Arles
The reknowned French film director Jean Cocteau had a special relationship with Les Baux-de-Provence. His last feature film, The Testament of Orpheusis, was filmed in the abandoned stone quarries. Today, these quarries are the site of Carrières de Lumières, the multimedia light shows that immerse the visitor in great works of art. Cocteau's film is a biographical introspection of the poet-filmmaker in which Cocteau plays the leading role. Completion of the film required financial help from many of Cocteau's friends and colleagues, including Pablo Picasso. A current exhibition in the Château entitled Picasso, My Friend displayed photographs of Picasso's work as well as shots taken on set during filming of The Testament of Orpheusis in 1959.
Picasso, Mon Ami, an exhibition of photographs from the filming of Jean Cocteau's The Testament of Orpheus
As we had spent a lot of time exploring Les Baux-de-Provence we opted not to stop at the Carrières de Lumières. We headed downhill hoping to find nice spot in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence for a picnic lunch followed by a walk about town. The picturesque tree-lined streets of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence were crowded with cafés and mid-day diners. However, we could not spot an open space or bench for our picnic, and so we settled for a space behind a contemporary art gallery. I guess the charms of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence will have to wait. On the backroads to Graveson, we came across an icon of Provence: a plane-tree lined driveways that leads to somewhere in your imagination. Entering Avignon, we encountered multiple road construction projects, with accompanying delays, re-routing, and cranky drivers. We finally made it to the hotel, and Carolyn went out to explore while I tried to catch up on the journal - not wholly successful. We found an out-of-the-way Asian restaurant that provided a break from French fare in a quiet setting. Our ice cream dessert was accompanied by a lively discussion of evolution theory after which we called it a night.
View looking back at Les Baux-de-Provence on the way down to Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
