CARRIERES de LUMIERES

 Perhaps the most common question asked regarding my French adventure was, "What was your favorite part of your trip? 

My answer really has to do with something I had never done before and the reason we detoured to Aix du Provence to visit Les Baux's  Les Carrières de Lumières, Quarries of Light. When researching special art exhibits in France, this particular exhibit had received great reviews but I had no clue what was in store for us. 

Oh, I have visited a quarry before but never the inside of the cave created from the removal of the stone nor experienced a multi media presentation inside such a cave. (This particular quarry mined limestone. ) I had actually envisioned walking through a normal gallery space with projected 3-D art works and in the evening presentation viewing the presentation sitting outside on chairs watching a power point on the side of a cliff but this perception was way off base.
Sally and I did a double viewing and went to see the 2017 Quarries of Light "The Fantastic and Wonderful World of Bosch, Arcimboldo and Brueghel" which runs until January 2018 in the afternoon and then returned in the evening with Jim for the Revue of past featured artists including Chagall, Raphael, Michaelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Klimt and Vienna.  

one could walk into an open part of the quarry

Thank goodness for sweaters as the contrast from the heat of the day and our 10 minute walk into the cave's cool interior was quite a shocking change in temperature.  The enormous cavernous space could hold a lot of people. There were no chairs. Even the couple hundred visitors who were there for during our visit spread out like ants on individual missions as each meandered through the space/ stood still.  Each wall, floor/ ceiling had a different projection as a dozen + slide projectors worked furiously accompanied by the same booming musical selection, mostly classical, resounding through the cave.

One could leave the dark cave and enter an open part of the quarry for a break/ to read info about the artists/ producer for a refreshment/ bathroom visit.

The photos will give you an idea of how small we were compared to the walls and even then the depth perception escaped my lens.

Bosch born at the dawn of the Renaissance in the Netherlands  came from a family of painters, painted in the 1500's and was one of the last artists to use medieval symbolism in his work.

 Arcimboldo an Italian trained in tapestry and stained glass, did cartoons and went to do portraits for the Habsburg Court of Ferdinand in the late 1500's. His claim to fame are people drawn using fruits and vegetables as their features.

Brueghel was born in Antwerp, Belgium but grew up in the Netherlands studying for some time in Rome. He is known for his attention to detail.

 Evening Review...

The music truly enriched the 3D multi media presentations and I wanted to provide a video clip to give a sampling of my most favorite  stop in Provence but the clip was too big. One became part of the exhibition. It was mesmerizing.

I faded before the end of the evening presentation as each artist's presentation was about 40 minutes in length. I treated myself to a solo walk without the crowds ambling back to the hotel by the light of the moon while the past hours of classical music replayed with the masterpieces in my head. It was definitely a once in a lifetime day right there in the heart of the Arpilles Mountains bordered by vineyards, olive trees in Provence's Les Baux...

WE'RE OUTTA HERE... ALLONS-Y

Don't get me wrong, we had a wonderful stay in Paris but it was time to head south after 6 days and enjoy other environs. 

The idea of renting a car was scratched off the list because Jim doesn't drive and neither Sally nor I wanted to drive. Research as to taking a bus/train was answered on line and concurred by Jim, our in-country expert who graciously took care of arranging all our tickets including transportation. I was truly thankful to be relieved of those duties. Train it was. 

A taxi picked us up from our hotel and delivered us to the train station with plenty of time before we headed south about 450 miles to the Mediterranean port city of Arles ( pronounced Arl) in Provence.  My seat mate was an older French woman whose husband's ticket was in a different area since they had waited until the last minute to purchase their tickets. Not only did I enjoy seeing the country side from the large train windows, I was also able to a visit with a native Parisian as an extra treat and practice my high school French. Her English was way better than my French but she was patient and let me butcher her mother tongue. I discovered that her husband and her love to cycle and camp. This weekend was just for a weekend camping trip for them. She assured me that we would enjoy our visit to southern France. She did not lie.

As they say the best laid plans of mice and men of times often go awry and such was the case as our intentions were to visit Arles's Roman treasures as it was the stopping port of the Romans between Italy and Spain and also known for  the Van Gogh museum before heading by bus to Les Baux.  (By the way it was in Arles where Van Gogh in the 1800's was inspired to produce some 200 pieces of work and also where that incident with his ear occurred...)

 Alas, upon arrival at the train/ bus station in Arles the place we were supposed to leave our bags was locked with a posted note. Needless to say we had no clue when the employee would return and we didn't want to schlep our bags around.  There some 100 feet away sat an earlier bus that could take us on to Les Baux our final destination.  It was a no brainer, take the bus and have more of the afternoon where we were eventually headed.

We placed our bags into the bus's open baggage compartment, picked seats and departed Arles with a quick glance of the city from the coach bus. 

We passed the Abbaye Montmajour where Van Gogh painted Starry, Starry Night. Truthfully I was ok not seeing Arles's sights as previous travels to Holland had introduced me to Van Gogh and I had seen Roman structures in Italy. 

The bus trip wasn't long as it was only about 14 miles between Arles and Les Baux. A gorgeous view of vineyards and olive trees accompanied by a warm blustery wind greeted us as we made our way down the hill to our hotel from the bustop. 

As it was the weekend parked cars lined both sides of the hillside for as far as the eye could see.  This town definitely survived from tourism. Fortunately our hotel tucked next to this road was really quiet and you wouldn't have known all these people were in Les Baux.  

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Here's our view of 1400's Les Baux from our hotel. There perched atop the hillside was the medieval town and its castle. 

After checking in, we had a delightful lunch before the hotel restaurant closed on the patio listening to the cicadas . Leaving the remainder of the day to explore the old city of Les Baux above us. 

Narrow cobbled streets winded upwards with many shops, galleries and restaurants for all those visitors.

The surrounding stunning views varied from a greener lunar type landscape to a lush valley.





Enough for right now, more to come in the next blog entry of what really brought us to Les Baux, the Carrières de Lumières, Quarries of Light...