Eight Days in Provence

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Blog #2, a continuation of my journey through Provence...which has been absolutely amazing. I highly recommend the region! No wonder the French love to come here...

Arles & Roman Ruins

Arles is located about 30 kilometers south of Avignon, just at the top of the Camargue region of Provence, which is wild, marshy, and flat. It used to be the most important city in all of Provence during the Roman era (known as Arelate), when it served as the primary port for the region and had a thriving import/export industry. It was located right on main road linking Italy to Gaul and Spain, and profited from its strategic location at the intersection of the Rhone and the Petit Rhone rivers: remnants of it Roman heyday are still very much in evidence- it has some of the best ruins in Provence. While it does not have the same strategic importance today, it is still a popular tourist destination and one of the crucial 'stops' on a tour of Provence.

Toni and I arrived on Saturday night and walked across town from the train station to our youth hostel- the trip took about 20 minutes! It's not very big, but it's a cute city. You can still see some of the Roman walls surrounding the city, and it possesses a magnificent Roman ampitheater, modeled after the Colliseum, but not quite as large. It also possesses the Thermes de Constantin (roman baths dating from the 3rd? century) as well as a theater that used to seat thousands. One really cool thing about Arles is that during the summer it stages two bullfights in the Roman arena- you can buy tickets and attend the spectacle, just like a gladiator bout 2000 years ago! Other than the Roman ruins, Arles also has a very famous abbey and cloister, the Cloitre St Trophime, which we visited and really liked. It's also the city where Vincent Van Gogh lived for a year or two (before being kicked out by the Arlesians because of his drunken, whoring ways which disrupted the 'civil peace' LOL) and I got to see the cafe that he painted in his 'Night Cafe' canvas- one of my favorites among his paintings! He also painted Starry Night Over the Rhone- a view of the Rhone river- from the 'Maison Jaune' where he lived (which was located 3 minutes from the train station but was destroyed during WWII) so it fun tracing his footsteps.

One other famous Arlesian is Frederic Mistral, a Provencal poet who spent much of his life trying to promote the Provencal culture and revive the local dialect- the 'langue d'oc' which gives the name to the Languedoc region today. A mix of Spanish and French, the langue d'oc is still spoken by some people, especially those living close to the border with Spain, but the 'langue d'oil' of northern France gradually conquered the country over the centuries. Mistral won a Nobel Prize for his poetry and used the money to create a museum about the Provencal (and the Arlesian) culture, which is called the Museon Arletan and is really worth a stop. The Arlesiennes (women of Arles) are famous for their traditional dress, and the museum does a great job of modeling the lifestyle and the customs of this town, using lifesize models and tons of daily objects. I think the museum was one of my favorite parts of the city- the rest of it, while nice, was EXTREMELY dead - no one in the streets at all - so it lacked the vibrancy of Avignon, Aix or Marseille. That being said, the streets are picturesque and I think a stop there during the summer would be a great idea. Perhaps for the festival when the Arlesians choose the 'Regne d'Arles'- their Queen - from among the young women of the city. The Queen must be well versed in the traditional culture, and it seems like this event must be a lot of fun to watch. It goes back over a hundred years!

The highlight of Arles was probably the dinner we had in the Place du (Roman) Forum our first night, which was an excellent meal of ham-and-chees crepes, friture de poissons (like the fish we ate in Geneva, Dennisons!) and a apple pie dessert, accompanied by a good Coteaux d'Aix-en-Provence rose and, of course, french bread. : )

Aix-en-Provence

While Arles was nice, I was happy to move on to Aix this morning (Monday). We took a bus west across the countryside (the same one that the schoolkids take!) into the Bouches-de-Rhone department, and arrived in Aix-en-Provence. After finding our youth hostel (a couple kilometers outside of town, on the Jas de Bauffon where Cezanne used to have his farm!) we strolled into the city and spent the day exploring the town. I really love Aix. It is much more lively and younger-feeling than Arles, thanks to its university population and larger size. However, it certainly hasn't sacrificed any of its charm, and the city is filled with 17th century mansions and fountains which dot the picturesque squares, and there is a lively cafe culture and vibrancy to the city. It didn't hurt that we had yet ANOTHER gorgeously sunny, cloudless day, and by this point in the week it is much warmer than when we arrived in Avignon. The two symbols of the city are water (hence the 17+ fountains that I counted during the day) and the Roi Rene, a 15th century king who was extremely enlightened and did much to promote the arts in Aix.

We saw countless beautiful buildings, multiple churches and cathedrals, and lots of pretty fountains and squares full of outdoor cafes. Since we didn't want to go to any museums (the best museum in the city was closed that day) we spent the whole day just wandering around, snapping pictures and peeking into stores and churches. We spent a nice hour lazing in the sun at a cafe, sipping a glass of rose wine and writing postcards, and then we ended the afternoon with a visit to Paul Cezanne's atelier (workshop) just north of the city wall. (Aix, too, has Roman ruins which date back to the 3rd century or so). The atelier is located on the hillside overlooking the city, and was purchased by Cezanne after the death of his mother, which forced him to sell the farm. I can understand why he picked the place! It was very peaceful, and really cool to see the actual objects that he used in all of his still lifes...if you compare the room to some of his paintings, you can easily pick out the different jars, tables, and statues. All authentic! His painter's smock is even still hanging on the hook where he left it...

Just fifteen minutes' walking further up the hill takes you the the Terrain des Peintres, a hilltop garden overlooking Aix that has a SPECTACULAR view of the Mont Saint Victoire, the mountain which featured in so many of Cezanne's paintings. Toni and I had the privilege of watching the sun set on the mountain, which was definitely a highlight of the trip. Try to imagine birds chirping, fall leaves turning colors, the small, white-stucco mediterranean houses dotting the landscape, and the sun painting its own rich tapestry of colors right onto the mountain...it's easy to see where Cezanne got his inspiration from. I could have sat there all night looking at it...but with the setting of the sun came the chill of a November night in Provence, so we headed back into the city. Dinner was a simple loaf of artisan bread purchased in a boulangerie and 'vin chaud' on the outdoor (heated) terrace of a tapas restaurant in one of the quaint little squares, and then we headed back to our hostel. I'd love to come back again, but tomorrow we are scheduled to head south the Marseille for the last three days of our trip. I can't wait to see the ancient port city that has dominated the south of France for 2600 years...so that will be the subject of my next blog!

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Comments

[Godilhaire]

Semantics
Lenga d'Òc = occitan / Langue d'Òïl = francés... Be clear and use good words, the word of the period you speak about. The "lenga d'Òc" was spoken, as well as the "lenga d'Òïl" was ; they have not spoken on the same area on the concerned period. Occitan is spoken now with the french language in Occitània. The differencies means the french colonialism... or expansionism. regards,