Les Baux de Provence is a little village located in the Alpilles in the Bouches-du-Rhône known for its castle and quarry (carrieres in French). Mega touristic place, it is a bit overrated to be honest. It looks like your typical provencal postcard with the stones, the mountains, the lavender, the castle perched up high on the hill, and the cicadas.

When I was younger, we would go there a lot. My family being from the States, we had to show them all the pretty things to see in Provence, and even in the 80’s it was already a place to see.

Trying to overcome the boring images that I had from my childhood, I decided to take my children while they were on their Spring break. The goal was to go to the quarry. The Carrieres des Lumieres means the Light Quarries (which was also known as the Cathedrale des Images a few years ago).

The movies being shown at the quarry, at the time I’m writing this article and up until January 2020, are Van Gogh’s Starry night (projection based on Vincent Van Gogh’s masterpieces), and Dreamed Japan, images of the floating world (screening of sceneries from the Japanese culture).

So we took our courage in both hands (well I took my courage in my own hands because I was alone with three kids). And then we decided to go on the first Monday of our Spring break.

In the village

In France, the winter and spring breaks are divided into three zones. We were the first zone on vacation. It was a regular day, not too warm, not particularly nice. It was just a plain ol’ spring day so I figured there wouldn’t be too many people.

MISTAKE: it was crowded! All nationalities, French included. If you’re agoraphobic, it’s not even worth it.

My second mistake: thinking that I would easily find a parking space. You can imagine that a village like that attracting so many tourists would have the decency to have enough parking spaces. Well, no. That’s France for you. I can’t bear it.

You almost have to fight for a parking spot. Despite that, we did manage to find a spot out of sheer luck as someone was coming out of a waste ground. So I was thinking wasteland, you don’t have to pay, right? Well, I was wrong. Again. 5 euros per hour, my friend.

If you want to just walk around the village, I’d say you would need at least an hour. Add more if you want to browse, eat an ice cream or have a drink at a café, do a little shopping, shoot the perfect Instagram picture. I’d say at least two hours. So 10 euros.

You can use a stroller, I took my stroller with my daughter. However, I wouldn’t advise it. So if you can, maybe carry the baby or have the child walk and whine. It’s not very pleasant to push the stroller on cobbled streets. There are also some steep slopes that you can have difficulty climbing or going down with a stroller. There are some steps that you have to climb to enter shops or random places (some free of charge) inside the village. So it’s doable with a stroller, yet better with a baby carrier.

We did not visit the castle, it was just a simple cheap little tourist walk. And that was enough for us.

At the quarry

The Carrieres de Lumieres is located a little way down from the village. It is on the road that snakes its way around the Alpilles but you cannot miss it.

I had to go twice to finally see the quarry:

• my rookie mistake: that Monday afternoon on spring break where it was clearly visible that we would not make it inside the quarry given all the people that were queuing up and already queued up.
• and on a Tuesday morning during the school year, a little bit later in May. That time I had booked my tickets online at 10:30am.

Tickets

They can be bought directly on the Carrieres des Lumieres’ official website. The site also offers a link to the FNAC’s website (however the prices differ from the official sites. They are cheaper for FNAC members. Be careful if you are not a member, they were more expensive.

Parking

There is free parking in front of the Carrieres’ entrance. Of course, it is not very big. And when we got there at 10ish, there were no more parking spaces left. So we managed to park along the road; a lot of people do that and we didn’t need to pay.

Waiting line

Honestly, you are better off if you book everything online and avoid the long queue. When we arrived there were two lines: one with groups and online tickets, and the other one with the “regular” tourists. Outside of the entrance I saw a little sign on that special line that said “from this point on, one hour”.

Inside

You are finally inside! It is a more or less dark place. The two showings follow each other with a brief intermission, where the whole place is lit (in the sense the lights are on, not it’s liiiiit).

The beginning of the screenings can be impressive for small children. It’s like at the movies, everything goes dark and the sound rises loudly.

If you go during the summer, it will be so agreeable and cool. I would advise wearing a light sweater, so as to avoid thermal shock when you get out.

You can go with a stroller.

There might be a small risk of sliding, mostly for clumsy people or crazy little people like my son. There are small slopes on a smooth, and dusty ground, so depending on your shoes be careful.

Depending on where you sit, you can easily get your clothes all covered in that white dusty stone powder. There are a few stone benches.

There are toilets outside of the screening area, yet still inside the quarry. They are located next to a little snack shop that was not yet open when we were there.

To leave this quarry, you just have to go back to where you entered and the exit is on the left of that door. When you exit you go through a small souvenir shop and that’s where we got a 4 euro magnet.

Final assessment of the carrieres visit with children

So I went to visit with my three kids who were 3, 6 and 9 years old. Overall, they really enjoyed it. The images are beautiful. It’s immersive art, so the images are projected everywhere: on the walls, on the ground. Certain images move, although it is brief beware of motion sickness (specially with the scene with the waves or with the writing).

The music is nice and most of the pieces are well known.

It should take about an hour to view the entirety of the two movies.
Each one lasts about 20 minutes I think with short breaks in-between. My daughters had enough after about 40 minutes, my son, who is the eldest, really enjoyed the whole experience.

As for me, I thought it was a very beautiful and relaxing experience. As relaxing as can be given that I had three kids that enjoy quietly moving away from me in the darkness. I especially enjoyed the flying lantern sequence and I thought it was in “Tangled”.

To conclude on the village and its quarry

• It is better to go during the off season, although I know that not everyone can do it,
• You should make sure you have extra time, as you will need time to find a parking spot or, if you want to visit the village, as you will find it difficult to walk purposelessly in those overcrowded little streets.
• You should really take in the sights, it is quite pretty even if overrated,
• And, if you plan on visiting the quarry, definitely book your tickets online.

So how about you? What do you do when you’re on vacation? Are you more like let’s do all the touristy stuff or do you like it when it’s quiet with nobody around?