Light and Art in an Abandoned Quarry: the Carrieres de Lumieres in Les Baux de Provençe
There are those tourist attractions in France that everyone should see at least once: Carcassone castle; the Louvre, the Eiffel tower; castles in the Loire Valley…and the Carrieres de Lumieres (the Cathedral of Light) in Les Baux de Provence should be added to that list.
It is guaranteed to dazzle you.
Located in the upper part of Les Baux’s Vallée d’Enfer (the Valley of Hell)…which, granted, is not the most appealing of names…the venue is located in an abandoned limestone quarry.
Only, that doesn’t describe it very well, because the quarry is located inside a mountain. You read that correctly, the quarry has been hollowed out of the mountain. And that is precisely what makes it so intriguing.
Getting there is fairly simple. Les Baux is a well-known destination point of the Provence across the Rhone, and most people drive up the hill and then desperately begin looking for a place to park.
You will turn right and begin to climb a narrow road that has impressively-massive limestone boulders all over the mountainside. There is a smallish parking lot just before you hit the entrance, but if it is full, continue driving up the hill and park where others have. The walk down is quite pleasant. Consider it part of the event.
Purchase a ticket and enter into the antechamber to the right. Right away, you’ll notice how cool it is, even though it might broiling outside.
You’ll hear the sound of music, will walk toward it, enter a darker room, and then…
It’s simply amazing. At the Carrieres de Lumieres in Les Baux, magnificent images are broadcast on the walls, ledges, rooms and floor of the quarry. The white limestone acts as a perfect screen, and the twists and crannies of the passageways that have been cut out of the rock add an extra dimension, giving them a feeling of depth and spaciality one would never experience if the images were shown on a perfectly flat screen.
The Carrieres de Lumières is a multi-media spectacle devoted to the arts. Every year, the people who are in charge of the program pselect a topic that they build their exhibition around. Over the years, we have seen ‘Heaven and Hell’ (featuring images of angels, saints and devils taken from northern France’s most storied cathedrals); an event devoted to the art of Hieronymous Bosch (frightening, hallucinatory images); Pablo Picasso (which showcased his multiple periods, among them the Blue); or, the last time, a program devoted to the art of Michelangelo, Da Vinci, and Raphael.
Note the stairway in the image above. If you had been with us, you would have sworn that you could walk up it.
You wander from room to room in the near darkness. The images are not static, and regularly change. They are also broadcast on the floor, which has made this passageway most intriguing. And at times, the images even wash over you.
During the last exhibition, the far part of the quarry was dedicated to the images of people that these Greats of the Renaissance had painted. We stood there in the dark as one sublime image after the other was presented to us.
If you’re ever in the area, do try and catch a showing at the Carrieres de Lumieres in Les Baux. You won’t regret it.
From the Book:
Chapter 5: Dark Clouds, Silver Linings
A stop at Les Baux’s Cathedrale des Images (now the Carrieres des Lumieres) was de riguer. An idiosyncratic multimedia spectacle, the Cathedrale des Images was part slide show, part musical performance, and part cave tour.
Every year, images devoted to a specific theme would be projected on the snow-white pillars, columns, and twisting passageways of an abandoned limestone quarry. The quarry was actually located inside the mountain, and served as a giant projection screen.
That year’s production was titled “Heaven and Hell,” and images of angels, saints, devils, and brilliant sections of stained glass windows—photographed at northern France’s most storied cathedrals—appeared on the ceiling, floor and walls of the white-as-a-screen limestone rock, and at times were even projected onto our very bodies.
Erik enjoyed jumping on the devils whenever he saw one projected on the floor, and put his head back and laughed when he was able to accomplish a series of devil-leaps in an impromptu game of Hades hopscotch.
I stood in the dark and felt the gentle nudge of guilt again. It was true that we’d come to France to find a house, but that should always have remained secondary to the enjoyment of simple pleasures. It was so easy to see that now. Why not, then?
