A Week in Provence (Part 2) - Days 23 - 24

A Week in Provence – Part 2

Day 6 – Les Baux

We had an exciting first five days in Provence, but still had two days left to explore the region.  Hardly enough, we learned, as there were many towns that we had to remove from our list of “to dos” for lack of time.  The two that survived were Les Baux and Cassis, and a visit to the calanques.

Les Baux is an ancient fortress town built high in the mountains near St. Remy, our home base.  It was only 15 minutes away, and had been recommended by a couple of friends, so – after a morning spent doing laundry and general lazing around - we set out around 2pm on Thursday to see it.

Preparing to walk to Les Baux (you can see the flag flying in the background)

While Les Baux was neat to see – it is literally built into a mountaintop, and you need to walk up the mountain to get there – it lives up to its reputation as “Provence’s most visited town.”  It was crowded, even on a Thursday, and the narrow streets were shoulder to shoulder filled with people and hard to navigate.

At the entrance, we were offered the opportunity to purchase tickets to go to the “Chateau des Baux” and to the “Carrières de Lumières.”   I didn’t really know what they were, but I bought tickets anyway.

Tommy about to go medieval on someone

I wish we had one of these at home

We didn't understand a single word of the medieval demonstration

Looking down at the vineyards (olives and grapes) from Les Baux

Catapult Demo

Climbing the steep (and well worn) stairs to the top of the castle

The village of Les Baux (I don't think anyone lives there - it is all shops)

Finally, the kids were photo'd out

Where the Chateau des Baux disappointed (it was basically a Disney-like Medieval reenactment), the Carrières de Lumières really blew us away.   The latter is a 60-minute laser art show that is broadcast throughout a cave, onto the 30-foot-high walls.  The walls have been sheared flat, to allow better projection.   It was somewhat complicated to take photos from inside because it was dark, but here is what we got:

We tried over and over to get a photo of our family in shadow - but people kept walking into it

Finally we settled on a giant shadow art composite (That's Jimmy on top)

Much of the art was from artists we had seen on the trip, so we were able to test the kids recollection of Van Gogh, Matisse and Piccasso.  For the most part, they passed, but Billy would later remind me (in the Musee D’Orsay) “Dad – I am a 14 year old boy.  I don’t care about art.  At all.”  What they did enjoy was making giant shadow puppets on the wall.

Selfie with vineyard in background

On the way home, we stopped at Mas de la Dame, a winery that we had passed on the way into Les Baux.  Tree and I bought a couple of bottles of wine, but we learned that the wineries here in France do not give tours.   Mostly all the do is sell their own wines, and tell you what flavors, nuances and influences to "look for" when you sip them.  (I don't know about others, but despite many glasses of wine, the nuances of different wines are largely lost on me.  I know what I like, and what I don’t like, but I cannot taste “hickory,” “blackberry” and “faint hints of smoky radish” or whatever people say I should be looking for.  So I’ve never been one for wine tours.)

We had planned an early departure the next morning, so we had a salad for dinner and hit the sack.

Day 7 – Cassis

Our friend Katharine, who has a home in Provence and whose stories about life there motivated much of our curiosity the region, had send an email recommending that we “visit the calanques – in Cassis -  by boat.”  Aside from knowing that it was high on her list, I didn't know what to expect.  Cassis is a 2 hour drive from St. Remy, so we were never certain we could fit it into our schedule.   As a result, I waited – literally – until the last moment to start calling boat rental shops to see if we could charter a boat.  Call after call, I asked (or at least I think I asked) in broken French if they had a boat for charter.  “Non” was the answer, again and again.  A captain finally put me in touch with JDK Boat rentals, who informed me that while they did not have a chartered boat available, they could rent us two small dingys which we could then pilot to the calanques.  Unfortunately, due to us not having the requisite French boating licenses, the boats could be no more than 6 HP, and could accommodate no more than 5 passengers.

None the less, this is something that we wanted to do, and our schedule had opened up to allow us to do it, so I agreed to rent the two boats.  We left the house at 7:30, aiming to arrive just before 10:00.

Our boats...

I will probably only get this half right, but the calanques are basically inlets and cliff faces that have been carved away by years of waves crashing against the limestone that makes up the shoreline.  There are some 20 calanques.  Some of them allow you to anchor and swim to the  “beaches”, which are actually just flat rock surfaces that you can sit on.  Others are restricted, and you can only hike to them – boats are not allowed to tie up or anchor nearby.

Our schedule – and the speed of our boat – only allowed us to see the 7 calanques that were closest to Cassis.  We paid our 400 euros for the two boats for a full day-  there was no deposit nor ID required nor contract to sign, which was refreshing --  took a 5 minute lesson on how to operate the boat, and we set out.

Making our way - SLOWLY - to the calanques

To say that the boats were slow was an understatement.  Kayaks were passing us.  A six HP motor ferrying 4 people against a 5 knot wind meant we were probably going 2-3 knots per hour.  Nevertheless, we motored on – avoiding the wakes of the giant boats that carried tour groups -- and made it to the first set of calanques.  When we left the port, the rental agency warned us that the winds were supposed to pick up in the afternoon.  It had taken us 20 minutes to go about ½ mile, and Tree was ready to drop anchor, take some snapshots, and head back.  Billy and Danny insisted that we keep going, and Dad agreed.  We didn’t necessarily know what we might find in the next mile of shoreline- Dad had theorized that there might be some rock jumping further on -  but we knew that we had not gone far enough.

Calanque #7

After about an hour, we made it to the most distant calanque – number 7 - that our boat rental agency advised us to visit.  As we got closer, we could make out people on the shoreline – lots of people.  We had not seen anyone at the other calanques, so this could be a good sign.  Indeed, as we pulled in to the “port,” the kids saw teens galore, jumping from rocks.  The only problem was that we had not though about how we were going to “dock” and bring our backs, towels, backpacks and picnic lunch ashore…

Danny swimming to shore

While Billy, Tommy and Danny jumped out and swam to the nearest cliff face, Dad took Tree, Lilly and Jimmy close to shore and grabbed hold of the (sharp) rocky shoreline.  Some how we managed to toss our bags onto the rocks.  While Tree set up camp, Dad took the boat back out into the harbor and anchored it.

We ended up spending a great 2-3 hours at the calanque.  Dad and the kids – including Jimmy – did some more cliff-jumping, this time exceeding the heights that we saw in Cinque Terre by a good 10 feet.  Even Tommy – our most fearless kid – was scared, but he eventually built up the courage to jump from a rock that was around 50 feet above the water.  Dad went right before Tommy, and – from first hand experience – can say that it literally took his breath away.  

You have time to think while in the air – “what if I land wrong…” “am I far enough away from the rocks?”  Jimmy did not jump off that rock, but he walked out to the edge of a rock that was 20 feet up and jumped off without missing a beat – to everyone’s surprise.

Meanwhile, the water was crystal clear, and offered great snorkeling.  We only had one mask, but everyone shared it and enjoyed the views of the fish below us.

 

B and D went back to jump again

while Dad, Tom and Jim swam

and had some wine with Mom

...relaxed...

...and took decidedly less risky jumps...

(Jim would not repeat his 20 foot jump for the camera, but took a smaller plunge)

Eventually it was time to swim back out to our boats and head back.  The winds had indeed picked up, making the journey home even longer than the journey out.  Slowly – this time swimmers were passing us – we made it back to port and home to St. Remy.

Dan tweeted this with the caption "Jus crusin the Mediterranean"

The waves -- the were bigger than they look in this photo!