Today (Armistice Day in France, Veterans Day in US) was meant to be a get down medieval day. Only to get down in the medieval way we had to climb up the some steep stony steps.
These led to the large granite ruins of Chateau des Baux looming over the farmland in the valley below.
The Château des Baux was a fortified castle built in the 10th century. The castle and the small town it protected was ruled by the lords of Baux for basically the entire Middle Ages. Standing on one of the battlement towers you get a feel for the feudal arrangement.
The peasants in the valley and the artisans halfway up the rock supplied the knights providing protection from above. The clergy hung around the castle marking sure the knights were fighting for the right cause. During the Crusades places like the Château des Baux were way stations on the road to Jerusalem (if the knights didn’t go by boat). Minstrels and troubadours made it a point to entertain there.
On the grounds of the Château there are examples of medieval siege weaponry. The trébuchet took sixty men to crank up a slinging delivery tower that hurled boulders at the enemy.
Battering rams had a pitched roof to shield soldiers from arrows, boiling oil, flaming pitch, and a wide assortment of nasty stone.
And for those locals who got out of line there were stocks ready to hand out humiliation.
No one ever claimed the early-middle ages were easy, and to get a taste of what it was like to just enjoy the view we tried our best to keep fingers tight on cell phones while we were being whipped by twenty-plus mile-an-hour winds. At one point when a sudden gust billowed out my jacket like sail, I thought I might be whisked into flight. A suit of armor would have come in handy.
The wind wasn’t just bracing, it was intimidating.
Looking down at the lush valley farms, I felt an affinity with the peasants far from the warriors clanking around in their armor, or the priests insisting on another chapel. They might have missed out on a troubadour or two, but at least they didn’t have to pay for entertainment with food and lodging. And if they were being threatened by a roving band of miscreants I’m sure the knights of the Château were eager to escape the wind chill of the castle keep and sweep into the valley brandishing their swords.
