Provence - Arles

On our last day in Provence, we had set ourselves quite an ambitious schedule. Possibly too ambitious, as usual, and we ended up running from one place to another to see everything we on our list. We started in St. Remy de Provence, where Van Gough was sent to recuperate when he started acting too crazy in Arles. St. Remy was quite frustrating, mainly because we turned up just about lunch time when all the shops and the art gallery were closed. We stayed for lunch, and poked our heads into the gallery when it opened, before getting back on the road.

On the road to Arles we stopped, somewhat determinedly after our partial failure at St. Remy, at the Moulin Jean-Marie Cornille, a 17th century windmill that turned out to be comically small.

We then headed on to Arles itself, which has a very long history, having been founded by the Greeks, then taken over by the Romans and backed Caesar in his battles, earning itself some of the spoils of his victories.

The main attraction of Arles is its roman theatre, which we did a tour around, and its ampitheatre which was under scafolding in preparation of the concerts and plays that are shown there over summer.

Though it was a lovely little town, we spent only a relatively short time there, feeling pressed by our schedule. We headed towards Pont du Gard, our last stop for our journey before heading home.