A school excursion to Arles

Today was the first time I have gone on an excursion with the school and my first time travelling by bus. Angélique, one of the profs and a lovely person, accompanied us on the trip. Arles is a relatively small city about an hour on the autoroute from Montpellier. On the way, I think we passed through three toll booths. I guess it will be important to have some cash on hand when we travel these roads by car. En route, I noticed many vineyards and some small independent wineries. There were also lush looking fields of green, but I have no idea what they were. The landscape was pastoral dotted with farms and grazing horses. 

When I woke up this morning I was hoping for good weather. Yesterday morning, it just poured in Montpellier and the weather reports for Arles didn't look promising either. Quelle surprise! When we arrived in Arles, contrary to the reports, the sun was shining, the sky was blue and flowers were blooming. It was downright balmy. Initially we visited some of the highlights as a group led by Angélique. She served as tour guide providing us with some of the history of Arles, in French of course. After her introduction, we were free to explore on our own for a couple of hours before the return trip. Immediately, I went to find Espace Van Gogh. As mentioned in a previous blog, I am a fan of Van Gogh's. As a side note, the French pronounce his name Van Gog, not Van Gogh. He lived here from 1888 -1889 and during this prolific period, he produced 300 paintings and drawings. Espace Van Gogh is the site of the hospital Hôtel- Dieu where Vincent stayed a couple of times following the infamous ear severing incident. You can see the name Hôtel-Dieu over the portal. On the other side, you can see the courtyard.

While there, I bought a book telling his story along with pictures of many of his paintings. His painting "The Garden of the Arles Sanitorium" April 1889 looks almost like this picture of the courtyard that I took today. Take note of the blooming flowers too.

Next stop was the Place du Forum and Le Café La Nuit made famous because Van Gogh loved to go there to paint the place and the people who frequented it. There are several paintings including "Café at Night", "Café in the Evening" both September 1888. The café exists today, but unfortunately was not open for business Fridays.

According to Angélique, Arles is home to the greatest number of Roman remains after Rome. Many of the Roman and Romanesque monuments were declared UNESCO World Heritage sites in 1981. Hence, my next stop was the Théâtre Antique. From this picture, you can see the modern platform in front of the original columns that is used for plays and concerts today.

Here are a few other pictures of the site.

The Théâtre Antique is on the left of the picture below. I walked up this street.....

....to the nearby grand Ampithéâtre. At one time, there was a small village that existed within the walls of the Ampithéâtre. Today it is an arena used for for bullfighting (ugh!), as well as concerts and plays.

 

I climbed to the top of the tower (seen here)...

... and took a few panoramic photos of the city of Arles and the landscape beyond. In the next picture you can see the Rhône river....

..... and in the following, the mountains, les Alpilles, in the background

As in most of the cities I have visited in France, there is a public square in the city centre. In Arles, it is called the Place de la République. In the centre of this square, in front of the town hall or Mairie, there is a 20 metre Roman obelisk of red granite built in the 4th century. L'Obélisque d'Arles.

In this same square, there is also the Romanesque L'Église Saint Trophine. I didn't find the interior remarkable, but the doors were quite interesting. 

The next few pictures are rather random shots. This charming building on a tiny street caught my eye. It turns out that it is a pottery shop called "la main qui pense".

At the end of the afternoon, I had just enough time to grab a cup of coffee before our departure. This was the building just outside the café.

As you enter the old city centre of Arles, there remain two ancient Roman walls on either side of the road. Here is one of them.

Just beyond these walls, there is a lovely fountain in the middle of a round-about. You can also see the green grass and the blue skies.

I enjoyed my short visit to Arles primarily because of my admiration for Van Gogh's art. On the way home, I read some of the book I bought on Vincent and thoroughly enjoyed looking at his paintings once again. He led such a troubled life suffering from mental illness compounded by alcohol and nicotine abuse. In the end, he died at 37 years of age in July of 1890 of an infection from a self inflicted gun shot wound to his chest. During his short and tragic life, he sold only two of his 2000 paintings. Today, they are worth a small fortune.