Le Provence

Tom and I went with my sister/hubby to Spain and Southern France last week. It was amazing and even though Barcelona was cool, and we saw lots of great things--including the coast, going to Les Baux de Provence was by far the coolest experience.

We got there early with lots of time to visit the Chateau and see all the history. I highly recommend going to see this 'town built on a rock'. It's surrounded by Olive groves and beautiful skylines...and we were so lucky to have a hot sunny day to see the sights.

The streets in this town are super narrow and jam packed with character. And because it was March, there were hardly any tourists there (which is rare and we heard in the summer it's just swarming with people) so seeing it in the spring and basically feeling like we had the place to ourselves was amazing. Honestly, it wouldn't have been half as nice had it been packed with people. We stayed for a night in Le Prince Noir, one of two small hotels found in the village (only 20 people live up in the village and 3 families pretty much own the whole town). As described by the all powerful wikipedia, it is "set atop a rocky outcrop crowned with a ruined castle overlooking the plains to the south. Its names refers to its site — in Provençal, a baou is a rocky spur." Our hotel, like most of the town was built on the rock face, so we had some of the landscape right in our room (see below)---it was fantastic. Here's some pictures to give you a feel for it. Definitely gave me a new appreciation for France. Oh and it didn't help that I shoved my face with baguettes and croissants the whole time, that made me love it too :)

The view from the roof of our hotel

The hallway in our suite, yes that is rock face.

A typical street in Les Baux