We Visit the Alpilles

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Our tour started at 9 o’clock so we were at the pick up point by the tourist office in good time. The transport was by jeep and it turned out that we were the only English speaking people booked that day so we had the jeep and the driver to ourselves, which is very unusual. The driver was a very nice young woman who spoke excellent English as her parents lived in Texas. The Alpilles are quite a small range of hills rising to about 500 metres but they are very steep so present a more dramatic aspect than one might expect. We drove through typical Provencal countryside, which is largely agricultural, with patches of woodland and the occasional village, to the area of Fontvieille. Our first stop was the ruins of the Roman aqueduct at Barbegal. This powered two sets of eight waterwheels. it was very unusual and innovative because the water came down from above, rather than having waterwheels in the river in the normal way. The aqueduct was not protected and we could walk on it. We could see the limestone deposits in the channel very clearly.

The Alpilles have very narrow windy roads, just like going to Cape Palliser for instance, but these did not bother us and it was all very scenic. We noticed there were strict fire regulations and everything was very dry. We next stopped at the remains of the Roman town of Glanum. This is also the site of the hospital where Van Gogh spent the last two years of his life. The triumphal arch and tomb were very impressive and surprisingly well preserved. The carvings were designed to impress upon the locals that Rome was now the boss. We then drove to the village of Les Baux de Provence, which is impossible to reach by public transport during the week, you have to drive yourself or take a tour of some kind. It has a spectacular position, set atop a rocky outcrop that is crowned with a ruined castle overlooking the plains to the south. Its name refers to its site: in Provencal, a bauç is a rocky spur. The name bauxite is derived from the village name when the ore was first discovered there. We only had an hour in the village but could have spent a lot longer as it is extremely picturesque and has a lot of interesting buildings and a giant catapult. Only 28 people live in the village itself, and a few hundred more in the wider neighbourhood. It was then time to return to Arles after a very pleasant morning in Les Alpilles.





We decided to spend the afternoon catching up on things so we went to the laundrette down the road and successfully washed and partly dried all the dirty clothes. Tamara stayed at the laundrette while Dave went to the train station and bought tickets to Avignon for the next day and confirmed the train times, which were a bit complicated as there are various different trains travelling over this route. Then we tried to find someone who could witness our special votes for the election. We were first directed to the Electoral office and then to the office of “Affaires Generales” but although the clerks tried to be helpful it turned out that the rule was that unless the documents were in French no one had the authority to witness our signatures. Suggestions of going to Marseilles or Paris to find New Zealand representatives were not at all practical. This was all rather annoying so we bought a small bottle of rose from the supermarket and sat on our balcony drinking it after which we felt better. We didn’t feel like traipsing around Arles looking for restaurants so we got a take away from the little Moroccan shop over the road which was a weird mixture of French and middle eastern, but quite nice with lots of salad.

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