Our original plan for Wednesday was to walk from Les Cigales to the market in St. Remy, shop and enjoy the town then take a taxi home with our purchases. But, we all know that the key to a good vacation is flexibility. Since we’ve arrived here in Provence, we have had more than one person tell us that the best hike was from St. Reny to Les-Baux-de-Provence. Plus the restaurants were more reasonable in Les Baux. AND, there is a spectacular show of Chagall’s paintings put to music and projected onto walls in a cave located in Les-Baux-de-Provence. So, plans changed. Josie and Joan had spent time with Guy, while we were tasting wine on Tues., getting information and maps about the hike between St. Remy and Les-Baux along with a recommendation and reservation for dinner.

We started the day by having Phillipe, our wonderful driver, pick us up from the villa and transport us to St. Remy. We broke up into smaller groups shopping, enjoying the street musicians, seeing some of the sights of the city.

At 12:30 we met at the Tourist Bureau to begin our Wed. hike. Maps in hand, we headed out of town and up the hill. We had our picnic lunch on the grounds of Saint-Paul Asylum where Von Gogh stayed. After peeking into the inner grounds of the Aslym, we were off by 1:30. Josie had us o a schedule. We were to do the hike for about 2.5 to 3 hours, arriving in Les-Baux-de-Provence in time for the 4 PM Chagall show. Then we had dinner reservations at Hostellerie de Reine-Jeanne in Les Baux. We wandered up and down around, we just couldn’t find the path that was to connect us to the main trail. Finally we ended at a Hotel/Restaurant Villa Glanum to see if they could give us better directions. Josie and Joan went inside to get the directions while the rest of us waited outside. The longer we waited, the more we talked about skipping the hike and getting taxis to take us to Chagall. In the end, that is just what we did. Apparently one of the men in the Hotel who had lived all his life in the area and knew the trail well, advised against doing the hike. It would actually be a very long walk up the long winding road to connect to the trail, and then have the 2.5 hour hike. Consensus by all … Babes as well as hotel employees… was to skip the hike and NOT miss Chagall.

You must look up http://www.carrieres-lumberers.com. It is a limestone quarry excavated over the years in order to build various buildings in the region. Tall columns are left in the quarry. And since 2012, they have been using the space for multimedia shows of music and art work that is projected up onto the columns, walls, and floors. Each year is a different artist, this year it was Chagall: Midsummer Nights Dream. It was just so amazing that,despite the cold, I could have sat there and watched the show for hours. It was one of the highlights of my trip. Words are so inadequate when we try to describe it. The experience was   SPECTACULAR!!!

The area of Les-Baux-de-Provence is breathtaking  There is a mideavel fortress on top of the hill as part of the village. We didn’t go inside the fortress but wandered the streets of the village, stopped for a coffee (some for a beer) at an outdoor cafe overlooking the scenery.  

Dinner was lovely. Most had the plat du jour, shared a bottle of wine, and lovely desserts. We returned home happy and satisfied.