Les Baux II

We have lost track of the days. I just know I have so many days at this location and so many at that and them it is time to go. However, I believe that it was the 7th, the night after the big storm, when we toured the chateau. WOW. The size of the castle had been huge and had survived multiple drives over the centuries. The views from various high points overlooking the valley, on all sides, were incredible. They had actual working trebuchet, a large version of a catapult, a battering ram, and the smaller catapult. It was extremely windy and nearly blew me sideways a couple of times! James figures it was gusting at least 40 MPH. There were dozens of very steep stairs that were worn with 6 inch divots carved out of the stone. We were exhausted afterwards and knew we would feel it in the legs later. One section was newly discovered in the 90's, and went way down lower than they thought the structure went and was full of more rooms and storage and cisterns.

After several hours of climbing and crawling all over the chateau, we headed off to Arles. Arles had several Roman ruins from the first century, including an arena. The wind was still very brisk and we were ticketed out, so we didn't actually stay more than about 2 to 3 hours and then headed back to Les Baux for a quiet dinner.

We pick a small restaurant, one of only about 4 to choose from. We ate indoors since it was a little too cool out. During dinner we were treated to a lightning show off in the distance, though there was no accompanying thunder. Our skies were starry and beautiful while the storm raged on the horizon. We did get some video and I did manage to catch one strike with my camera - which tool many tries.

Later in our room we threw open the window and watched for a long time before turning in. It was beautiful. James woke me up around 1:00 to say the storm had hit us, the 2nd night in a row! It was louder and more violent than before! We struggled go sleep. I did manage to doze off until...

Our entire bathroom turned into a shower. Water poured from three light fixtures and streamed down the walls and poured out (it had a raised floor up off the side of our room with a sliding glass door) into our bedroom. Unfortunately the power was out. Unfortunately, I needed to use the restroom. Unfortunately, I could not wait, so I ended up having a midnight frigid shower! We were afraid the ceiling would cave in, so I handed James everything out of bathroom, makeup bags, towels, hair stuff, tooth brushes, and the like. James figured a couple of gallons per minute poured into the bathroom. Anything on one side of the bed was soaked in minutes. We quickly packed up everything in case we had to flee the room and then laid back down and just waited. We could tell the storm was starting to move off and again I managed to doze off until...

James woke me up again and said our bedroom roof was leaking right onto his head. I turned my iTouch into a flashlight (yes, there's an app for that) for the second time that night and we located several leaks in our room, with the biggest being right over our heads. We grabbed the recently rescued towels and used those where our pillows had been and scooted down low in the bed to avoid the drips and finally fell asleep around 3:00 a.m.

Well the roof didn't cave in. We did survive, and the sun was actually shining when we unfolded ourselves out of our fetal positions.

Our B&B hostess, Ute was horrified of our ordeal and the mess and moved us to the suite for tonight. So while we have this strange story, we also have her nicest room for our last night in the magical Les Baux.

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