Blogs from Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France, Europe - page 14

I was sweating and feeling nervous as I cautiously climbed and descended yet more stone steps, going from pitch black to blinding sunlight as I emerged into the 2000 year old arena in Arles. But I was grateful that I was just looking and I wasn’t being pursued by a lion or any wild animal, or about to pit myself against a roaring bull! I could almost feel the remnant of fear in the underground passages and holding areas. Roman arenas are stunning structures, and the one in Arles is the 20th in size in the world and bigger than the famous one in Nîmes. As always, I am fascinated by the thought of how many bums have sat on the well worn seats and climbed the tiers over the centuries. It is still used for ... read more

(Words from the artist - at last). Such was Vincent Van Gogh’s mental state that in May 1889 he left Arles to admit himself into an asylum so he could be cared for. During the year he stayed at the monastery of St Paul de Mausole in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, despite days and sometimes weeks of incapacitation, he produced around 140 paintings and numerous drawings. It was a prodigious output - he was at ‘the height of his powers’. Sadly it was not many months after he left for Auvers-sur -Oise that the incident happened where he tragically died. I, and many other painters before me, come here to be in the place where he was. We look at his (reconstructed) room in the asylum, take in the peace of the cloisters he painted, wander the surrounds marvelling ... read more

The nature of recreational travel is that by the time you love a place, it is time to leave! This trip is intentionally slower than earlier ones (like me) and we have never stayed two weeks in a place before, like we just did in Lourmarin. So one minute we are relaxing with Loic and Evaline, our hosts, over a simple and delicious family meal (my favourite - the large platter of fresh asparagus with vinaigrette), and the next we are packed up and double kissing goodbye as we headed off across the countryside. The Lourmarin cottage was the perfect place to slow down, turn our bodies around and immerse ourselves in a poppy themed holiday! We had a few hours to fill in between checkout there and the next 2pm checkin, so we plotted the ... read more

Aix-en-Provence is known as the Paris of the south and a stunning city but we delayed our anticipated visit there when the weather turned stormy. We had whizzed through it on the way to Cassis, so ithe trip did not seem too daunting. We know the spots where we took wrong turns and how to avoid tolls if we want to. Nevertheless, with only a few days left in this area, last night we almost balked! So many things to see, stories of impossible parking, my inability to walk long distances, especially uphill, and the tricks that Google maps plays all conspired to make us hesitate. Loic, our host, used to live in Aix, but a little like a native speaker trying to help a language beginner, he doesn’t understand our challenges and airily tells it ... read more

This whole trip began with a dream at home in Australia about Cassis, a tiny town on the south coast of France, just 22km east of Marseille. Over a year ago, I was browsing the internet looking for ways for us to get to Europe again, and came across the Camargo Foundation - an institute situated in Cassis for the encouragement of artists, thinkers and performers. Thy offered several residential courses each year for selected participants, including accommodation and some support - it sounded too good to be true! We felt more and more drawn to it, and Peter put together his application. We knew, however, that it was a long shot and probably favoured artists with more profile. As the months went by we talked about the options and what we would do if Cassis ... read more