Good morning Arles!
We headed out to the nearby Musée départemental Arles antique – a museum about the history of the area, but some especially interesting exhibits about Roman times.
The centrepiece is a Gallo-Roman barge found in the river nearby in 2003. Fascinating.
Short stay home rentals in Europe have been problematic. The locals don’t like that it drives up rental prices for locals. A fair enough criticism.
It would seem someone had decided to show their disapproval: after a couple of hours at the museum we returned to the house to find there was dog poo on doorstep.
A possible explanation was it was accidental, but I doubt a dog would climb up onto a step to do its business, with its owner not noticing.
I had spotted the odd notice posted up in the streets, criticising tourists. But I should note that we found the locals we encountered to be friendly and helpful. And apart from this, there were no other issues.
Anyway, we cleaned it up and had some lunch and went back out for a walk, hoping for no more little presents.
Trying to follow instructions in a guide book, the walk took us around more of the town, including the central area with the all the shops, and past some interesting spots.
Van Gogh lived in Arles in 1888 and 1889, and seems to have been very productive during that time.
On one edge of a square, there’s the site of his painting “Café Terrace at Night“. A version of this was recreated for the Doctor Who story “Vincent and the Doctor“, implying the story was set in Arles.
Not too far from the cafe is Van Gogh’s “Garden of the Hospital in Arles“. Both of the cafe and the former hospital are maintained in the colours from the paintings… well, you would, wouldn’t you.
Then there was this doorway, which reminds me a bit of the entrance to the Mines Of Moria in the Lord Of The Rings movies.
We kept walking the streets. Some were busy, some were quiet, but in almost all of them in this central part of the town, there were no cars.
In another public square (Place de la Republique) we found a 4th century Roman obelisk.
At the nearby Hôtel de Ville (Town Hall), a wedding was taking place, watched from a distance by some police on bicycles.
We stepped inside the nearby Cathedral Saint-Trophime, then looked in the Cathedral cloister next door. An amazing peaceful space in the bustle of the town.
(The word cloister always makes me think of Doctor Who, and the TARDIS’s Cloister Bell, a sign of distress. No such alarms here, thankfully.)
We stopped for an ice cream, then kept walking and found the Roman Theatre. Apparently it’s still used for performances, in fact they seemed to be preparing for one.
Close by is the Arles Amphitheatre, another Roman structure, in surprisingly good condition given it was built in 90 AD.
Recently I was reading an article about the best Roman sites around the world. This was number 33… I wonder how many Roman sites there are in total. Thousands, I would assume.
The amphitheatre is set up on a hill, so we admired the view to the mountains, then walked back through the town to the house, passing a Van Gogh memorial on the way.
Dinner out again at another great local restaurant.
More exploring – and visiting the market – tomorrow.
