A ruined eagle's nest above the Alpilles — birthplace of the troubadours
Les Baux-de-Provence is one of the most dramatic villages in France — a medieval fortress-village perched on a rocky spur of the Alpilles, its ruined castle hovering 245 metres above the Provençal plain. The village gave its name to bauxite, the aluminium ore discovered here in 1821. Today it is home to Carrières des Lumières, where immersive digital art projections fill a former quarry, and the legendary three-Michelin-star Oustau de Baumanière below.
Les Baux was a powerful seigneurial court in the 12th century, home to troubadour poetry and the Courts of Love. The Lords of Les Baux claimed descent from Balthazar, one of the Three Kings, and bore a star on their arms. Louis XIII ordered the castle demolished in 1632 after the Lords backed Protestant rebellions; today the ruins cover the entire plateau tip. The village was a major centre of Provençal Romantic nationalism in the 19th century.