MATURE FLÂNEUR

Baux Castle: Rebel Stronghold with a View

Two of France’s most fabulous vistas.

From the highest point of Baux’s medieval castle. All photos by Tim Ward, except as noted.

On a limestone ridge of the Alpilles hills of southwestern Provence is a high and narrow escarpment of such strategic value it has been inhabited for over 6,000 years. It is called Baux, (pronounced “bow”) which is the Provençale word for “escarpment” itself, and the people of Baux have likewise always been called Baussencs (masculine) and Baussenques (feminine).

Baux Escarpment. It looks as if someone took a bite out of the cliff.

During the Early Middle Ages, Baux was built into a castle fortress from whence the lords of Baux dominated the wide and fertile plains below, and reigned with near invincibility against their foes. When that noble lineage died out in 1426, various kings, lords, dukes, viscounts, and more than a few princesses and baronesses, all sought to rule from Baux. For hundreds of years, rivals feuded and fought for possession of the castle, because its strategic value was impossible for any rising power to ignore.