Les Baux-de-Provence

Les Baux-de-Provence Bike to Hell and Back The Alpilles Mountains are full of biking routes with fabulous views, that range from easy to moderately difficult. Our favourite ride is to puff our way from St-Rémy up to the Val d’Enfer (Hell Valley.) It’s full of rugged boulders and rocky outcroppings and there’s a spot where you can look straight across to the mountaintop fortress of Les Bauxde-Provence. The best part of the ride is coasting back! Hike to the Top of the World La Caume is one of the highest points of the Alpilles Mountains and is surprisingly easy to reach on foot. Rather than starting at the bottom, you can drive to a big parking lot that’s part of the way up and join the trail there. It’s paved and well-marked and not too steep, and the view from La Caume is terrific—to the north you can see the Rhône Valley and to the south the view goes all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. The Outdoor Markets One of the glories of Provence is its outdoor markets, full of wonderful sights, smells, and tastes. You can sample cheeses, drool over roast chickens, and chat with the olive vendor, find perfect souvenirs, then relax in a café. You can’t visit Provence without going to its markets – every town and village has its own. My favorite, of course, is St-Rémy’s. market Provence 76 | The Good Life France

Pont du Gard The Stunning Roman Aqueduct The Pont du Gard was built over 2,000 years ago, to bring water to the city of Nîmes. It is so big that Roman engineers had to build it on three levels, each with its own set of arches. The aqueduct crosses over the Gard River and is as tall as the top of the Statue of Liberty’s torch! For extra fun you can rent a kayak and float under it. Birth of a River Imagine that you are walking on a path next to a river, going upstream. You look up and see that you are coming to a high cliff. You wonder how the river gets past it – maybe it goes around? Then you get to the cliff Fontaine de Vaucluse and you realize the river is coming out of the ground, just bursting forth. You’re at Fontaine-de-Vaucluse, one of the largest springs in the world, and so deep that even Jacques Cousteau couldn’t reach the bottom. A River of Sheep Every year, thousands of sheep march through the streets of St-Rémy, accompanied by musicians, shepherds, sheepdogs, and the occasional goat. It’s like a river of sheep flowing through town! Afterwards there are sheepdog trials. This is a fun event for the whole family. It’s all part of the annual transhumance festival that commemorates the days when sheep used to walk to higher pastures to escape the summer heat. Keith and Val Van Sickle live part of the year in St-Rémy-de-Provence and have traveled widely throughout the region. Keith is the author of An Insider’s Guide to Provence (read our review). The Good Life France | 77