Arles - Betty

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Betty Day 9: Arles

When we arrived Arles tonight, I was not expecting what we saw. Literally just around the corner of our hotel is an ancient Roman outdoor amphitheatre...partly in ruins, but mostly standing. From the periphery, we could see it was lit up at night and we poked our heads through to watch and listen. There were ballet dancers and classical music being wafting through the night air... some beautiful opera. It looked like it was a ballet concert from a dancing school. Very sweet. We stayed for a couple of songs then kept walking to find the restaurant we had been recommended. As we turned the next corner, there in the dark blue dusk sky was a collosal Ancient Roman Coliseum structure where they used to hold gladiator sports. The music was still singing up the street behind us. I had to hold back the tears from spontaneously falling from my eyes. The whole image was so incredibly beautiful and I have never, ever seen anything so old.
We spent the next day walking around the town of Arles. We visited a museum of ancient history, which catalogued artifacts from the impressive Roman Empire that ruled this land, long before it was considered to be part of France. Fountains, tenderly sculpted statues draped in folds of cloth carved from marble, sarcophagi and urns. There was another museum of (more modern) History, where we saw many 18th and 19th Century portraits of ‘Arlesian’ women, typically in their lace head-dress, pleated and pointed shawls and elegant floor-length skirts. They seemed familiar from the paintings of this time. I imagined that the Roman ruins that moved me so were just as ancient to these women then.
The light rests late in Provence. It is something you read about, but you have to settle your eyes on it to believe it. My eyes are tuned to an Australian spectrum: bright with short, slinking shadows - blasted out and whitewashed with polarity. Summer here, the sun is above the horizon still at 10 o’clock at night. All afternoon, it streams through at a diagonal angle, prismic and full of promise. The flowers and grasses have an unbelievable saturation of colour. Greens and reds and blues, painted on thick like someone has reached into your brain and fiddled with the dials. I keep blinking to check if it is real. (By the way, drugs are illegal in France, even absinth.)

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Photos

Looking out of Amphitheatre
Kate prior to ascension!

Comments

[Scotto]

Ahh
Betto, such a way with words. Have you considered moonlighting as a freelance travel journalist? Thanks for the card, it took me right back to that time in Alice parent's bedroom ;) Did you both have a mock gladiator battle? I assume you are both out and about cycling through beautiful countryside now, can't wait to hear all about it, love to you both xo