Fort de Buoux

I don’t know why we haven’t been here before, as it is not far from where we are staying, although I have to admit the road to it is a bit scary as it traverses the mountains.

On a rocky spur above the gorges of the river Aiguebrun, there are the ruins of a medieval village and fort. You park in the valley and then walk up (for some reason we scrambled up an old rocky path through woodland and then discovered that others had walked round by the tarmac!). Then you go under a huge rock cliff and arrive at a house, and the most beautiful garden on the slopes of the rocky hillside. This is the home of the caretaker of the place. She takes your money and issues you with a ticket and a maps, one in English.

Then you make your way up a rocky path with perilous drops on one side. It really doesn’t help having signs warning how ‘dangerouse’ the path is. Then there are rocky steps and you are up.

There at a great height are the ruins of a village and fort. It was first occupied in the Bronze Age and from that time until the 17th century the promontory high above the river provided a place of security, a site easy to defend. Eventually it became, over the centuries, a haven for various dissenting religious groups. Until, in 1660, Louis XIV ordered its destruction.

Wandering amongst the ruins now it is difficult to imagine how people lived up here. But they certainly did. There are the remains of their houses, store rooms, church and towers. It reminded me of when we were in Machu Picchu, many years ago now. There, although the buildings themselves are amazing and the extent of the place is something that cannot be conveyed in a picture, the most staggering thing of all is how high up it all is. The same here.


More on the geology of the place here.