Day: July 11, 2019

Giant Trebuchets!

Heading directly west for 2 hours brought us to the quaint village of Le Beaux de Provence.  The old town sits on top of a limestone hill. The cobblestone streets would uphill and contained charming stone facades with blue and red shutters. After winding our way through the narrow streets we reached the Chateau Le Beaux a 13th -17th century fortress.

Le Beaux de Provence
11 July 2019
The old medieval streets of Le Beaux

Before entering the Chateau, we stopped and had a delightful lunch in a café courtyard that was cut out of a cave. It was probably once and old niche for livestock and you could see the old hayloft floor beam holes in the stone.

The Chateau perched high on the hilltop glittered in the brilliant sunshine. At times the while limestone was blinding to look at. We arrived just in time to see a trebuchet demonstration. There were three different styles of trebuchet in the courtyard. The re-enactors used large styrofoam balls and launched them from two different trebuchets! It was a treat for us to see a real French trebuchet being shot in an old ruined French Castle! We built our own trebuchet about 2 years ago.

Le Beaux has the second largest working trebuchet in the world. The first is located in Warwick England.
  • Loading a smaller trebuchet
  • We love trebuchets!
The re-enactors demonstrated the power of the trebuchet by launching the two different models on the left.
  • Crossbow range:
    Seamus hit the red
  • Faywen hit the red
  • Liam had to shoot at the far target and hit the red

After the demonstration we meandered around exploring the various rooms and towers. We climbed the rubble stairs and were treated to an amazing view of the surrounding valley and farmland. Dante was inspired to write the “Hell” section of the “Divine Comedy” after visiting Chateau Le Beaux. The gnarly limestone cliffs reminded him of twisted souls. However in stark contrast the farmlands looked like a green and yellow patchwork quilt.

Bright limestone walls of Chateau Le Beaux
The white twisted limestone cliffs that inspired Dante
Farmland in the valley below the Chateau
Another view of the farmlands that are primarily olive orchards
  • View of Le Beaux from the high tower
  • Closer view
In this photo you can really see how the Chateau was built over centuries into the limestone cliff face

We stopped and did a bit of shopping as we walked back downhill. We found some lovely French made pottery and ate yummy gelato! Faywen and I both found lovely new sun hats at a local milliner’s shop. Gerand was very kind and took his time helping us find hats. He was particularly smitten with Faywen. He said it’s not often he has such well-mannered children with good taste in his shop!

Mademoiselle Faywen in her new chapeau

Our drive home took us through St. Remy where Vincent VanGogh stayed a year and painted his famous “Starry Nights”. We also drove by the ancient roman ruins at Glanum and viewed the Roman Arch.

This beautiful carousel sat in the main town square in St. Remy
Glanum Roman Arch