Arles, France

This past weekend I had the good fortune to be able to visit Arles which is a small town in the southern part of Provence. It sits at the convergence of the large and small Rhone Rivers inland a bit from the northern Mediterranean Sea. I was expecting warm temps since I have an image of the Mediterranean being forever warm, but it was far from that. It's been a very cold and unusual winter so Arles actually had some remnants of snow scattered about. The wind was very strong so I'm sure it felt a lot colder than it was.

Arles is a UNESCO World Heritage site so I spent 2 plus days exploring Roman and Medieval ruins, viewing artwork, and relaxing in the hotel in the heart of the old city. This town has Greek and Roman pasts with the Romans leaving their marble footprints, some of which are not only still visible but still in use today. Julius Cesar is noted as founding Arles as a Roman colony around 46 BC. The city's two most famous Roman ruins are the Roman amphitheatre where they staged the infamous sporting events with wild animals and gladiators and chariot races and the Theatre Antique seen here on the left which was a huge complex for drama. Today, the city hosts bullfights in the amphitheatre, while the Theatre Antique is being restored to some of its previous grandeur with future plans to use it as it once was. Below the Place de la Republique is the enormous Les Cryptoportiques from the 1st century that served as a storage place for agricultural products and wine as well as for other public needs. As I walked under the perfectly formed barrel-shaped ceilings, I couldn't help but to marvel at Roman engineering. There are also remnants of the Roman baths where the entire population, rich and poor, would go to bathe every evening. These are located very close to the Rhone as an obvious source of water. Medieval churches and cloisters seem to be around every corner and the winding, narrow, maze-like streets give one the feel of what life must have been like during the Middle Ages. Much, much later Van Gogh lived here and found inspiration from the light and colors of the town. We ate at the Café de la Nuit that was the subject for one of his famous paintings but none of his original works exist in Arles. The Musée Réattu had some works that Picasso donated that I enjoyed seeing since they were mostly simple, small pieces that aren't normally seen. My favorite museum was the contemporary Musée de l'Arles Antique that holds a huge collection of prehistoric to the VI century artifacts found in the region. They have recently added hundreds of objects to their permanent collection that were brought up from an excavation in the Rhone river. Objects from ship wrecks centuries ago but also things that people took to the river and threw in, sort of like the city garbage dump of everyday things that didn't have any more value or use. The last room of this collection had a magnificent bust of Jules Cesar! A picture is worth a thousand words so check out the city's website for great photos and tons of information. http://www.tourisme.ville-arles.fr/