Blogs from Arles, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France, Europe

Today we drive to Arles 56 minutes by car from Avignon. Arles was once a Roman city and the old town has narrow streets and is know as a place Vincent Van Gogh lived and worked. We park near a large outdoor market. Mark buys a hat and I buy some handmade soap. We buy a museum pass and visit the Les Arenes (colosseum). The colosseum holds 12,000 spectators. We are not able to enter the colosseum because it is being used for a girls volleyball tournament. We visit the St-Trophime Romanesque church. They have the largest collection of Saint’s bones I have ever seen. We visit every open church we pass when traveling because the church funded artist’s work and beautiful paintings, statues and tapestries can be found in churches. We also visit the Saint ... read more

Day 10 Arles……………Really the only thing I knew about Arles was that Vincent Van Gogh painted there for about a year. He was very productive during his short time here. While I’m not an expert on post impressionism art for which Van Gogh is noted, I do like most of the artists of the Impressionism era. I always thought Van Gogh's paint strokes looked angry and could practically picture him slamming each stroke onto the canvas. Maybe painting was something he felt he had to do and not something he loved to do. Now take Renoir, his easy brush strokes immediately makes me happy, I can imagine being at the gathering in Montmartre dancing the night away in Paris’s fabulous La Belle Epoch period, I start swaying just looking at a Renoir. I feel the same ... read more

A wander firstly zig zagging the area around the northern gate. Easy day and one more monument on our ticket left. So we decided on the Le Theatre Antique Roman ruins. Built end of the first century BC to hold 10,000 people. In my opinion probably not much left to show for it. It was looted for it's stone for building houses etc. Once again the photos will tell. A visit again to the hospital courtyard of van Gogh in a better light. Felix Ray his doctor also had a portrait done & gifted to him by van Gogh while he was hospitalised here. Home to pack up for Nice. Think I'm all 'ruin'..ed out!... read more

There we go! Little Arles has got 7 UNESCO Heritage sites...what a gem! Along the Boulevard to the 'Alyscamps' cemetary: Roman cities traditionally forbade burials within the city limits. It was therefore common for the roads immediately outside a city to be lined with tombs and mausoleums. 'Les Alyscamps' was a Roman Necropolis in the 4th century AD. Saint Tropimus was buried here and it was popular for people from far and wide in Europe to be sent here for burial using the Rhone for transport. It was one of the most famous necropolis in the ancient world. UNESCO Heritage listed. The better of the roman sarcophagi are in the Arles Departmental Musee Antiques which house one of the best collections of sarcophagi in Europe. Vincent van Gogh painted 'Falling Autumn Leaves' from the bank. Next ... read more

We tootled off down the Boulevard to the info centre & collected a 'pass' that will get us into 3 monuments & 2 museums €24. Made our way through the Mercredi (Wednesday) Markets. Everything from clothing, linen, kitchen items, fresh vegetables, meat, pizzas, bread......set up under the tree lined street with Autumn leaves dropping everywhere. We stocked ourselves up with some nice tomatoes, grapes, dried ginger, cranberries... We could be anywhere in the world here.. Wandered back through the centre of town. Through the old hospital courtyard. I still get lost... I remember the Venetians in Venice did that on purpose to confuse the enemy. Think the Chinese do this too with their small corridors... but I am here on friendly terms! I just have to remember to say 'merci' not 'grazie'. Which brings me to ... read more