We are getting really good at starting our days at a leisurely pace and didn’t get away until 10:30. We did a little shopping in Apt before tackling the very narrow and windy drive up to Fort Buoux.
Like most of these sites, you can drive only so far and then you must walk the remaining mostly vertical distance. Fortunately the day was sunny but coolish and the path was reasonable. We had no idea what to expect and after finding the first remnants of ruins, thought mistakenly that there wasn’t much to this fort.
We very quickly discovered that the site, which was inhabited since the earliest antiquity and then became a refuge about a thousand years ago for Protestant Waldensians and then a fort from the 1400’s to the 1800’s, went on and on and eventually stretched over ½ kilometre.
We passed cave houses, walled homes, many cisterns, a church and grain storage silos carved in the rock. There were of course also many fortified ramparts and towers and the castle keep was at the very top of the fort, able to overlook the entire habitation.
The views from the top were staggering and unfortunately very difficult to capture on film. As I take these pictures now, I first stand and soak up the view first hand, knowing full well that the photos just won’t do it justice. Dawn did really well with the heights, but did finally reach a drawbridge path, at which point her journey upward was finished.
We actually only saw one other couple in our whole exploration of Fort Buoux, which is a bonus for traveling at this time of year. On the way back to the mas we picked up another already seasoned and ready for the oven duck breast, similar to the one we had last night for dinner. It seems we can’t get too much duck. The French do a wonderful job of making it easy to eat interesting and delicious food. Our day concluded like yesterday with more cards and popcorn with Sheila and Cole. We’ve now branched out to euchre and so far the boys are getting the cards.
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