Mistral reigns in Arles

Today, we went to Arles, taking a quick train from Avignon. Arles is a charming, eminently walkable town with all its key attractions in a relatively small area.


Our first stop was the farmers' market, just outside the city walls. We had decided to visit Arles on the Wednesday because this was the day the farmers' market was on and we would not be able to catch the farmer's market in Avignon (only on weekends). The market is indeed an entertaining place, full of shops selling olives, herbs, meat, fish and vegetables, cheese, honey and so on. We wandered through the food shops, and went through a few clothing and fabric shops. But at that point we reached our turning for one of the big attractions of Arles - its Roman arena.


Like Orange, and other towns in Provence, Arles is a former Roman town and has the arena, the theatre, and the baths to prove it. The arena is pretty big (there is a sign in the arena indicating the relative sizes of a number of the remaining Roman arenas) at 136 x 107m (I suppose this excludes the surrounding walls?). There were also a few signs here and there indicating where to go, and a nice view of Arles from the tower on top. But unlike the Orange Roman theatre, there was no autoguide and so it was less interesting a visit than it might have been.

We left the arena and found ourselves in the little row of fabric shops just outside the arena. I must admit we spent some time here looking at the fabrics and making little purchases.

The next stop was the Roman theatre. However, we took a quick look and decided not to go in. There was a fair amount of restoration work going on, in the first place - probably preparing the place for the summer rush. But, more importantly, the theatre was very much in ruins, with only two columns remaining of what must have been an impressive building. A very far cry from the well preserved theatre at Orange. Having seen that one, we were disinclined to go in.

We moved on, but since it was the lunch hour all the shops were shutting (except the eateries). We walked into the Cafe Des Arts opposite the Museum Arlaten (also shut) and found that that apparently, it was formerly a residence and Van Gogh used to stay there. Unwittingly, we were following a Van Gogh trail! Provence is associated with so many great painters and writers. Van Gogh spent a year in Arles, and apparently this was a very productive period for him. Guidebooks describe the "Van Gogh" trail and show the different spots he painted. Later in the day, we would walk through the Espace Van Gogh, which used to be a mental hospital, where Van Gogh was treated and is now a cultural centre. In the central courtyard is a sign with a reproduction of a Van Gogh painting of the hospital. The buildings are painted and the courtyard laid out in the manner depicted in the painting, a nice little tribute to Van Gogh. Of course, it is a little too late considering Van Gogh's talents were never appreciated in his time. Incidentally, there is only one single Van Gogh painting in the whole of Provence - I think in a museum in Avignon. Of course we did not go there and so the only Van Gogh I did see in my time in France was the one in the Rodin Museum in Paris - that of La Pere Tanguy.

But Van Gogh was only a visitor. Arles' favourite son is indubitably Frederic Mistral, Nobel Laureate (Literature, 1904). His statue is in the town square, and his legacy lives on in the Museum Arlatan, which was set up with the Nobel prize money, and which we visited when it opened after the lunch hour. The museum is focused on Provencal dress, traditions, culture etc. It didn't allow photos though. Hence, no photos of its exhibits. I did see, however, a small little figure of the "Tarasque", a legendary monster of Provence. We had first about the Tarasque the previous day from our guide as she drove us through the town of Tarascon. The story is that the Tarasque was terrorising a town in France and was only defeated by St Martha. The town was thereafter renamed Tarascon. Other exhibits included large, lifesize models of family events, eg visitors to a mother and her new baby.

I walked next to the Roman baths, described in the guidebook as "well preserved". Well, it is all relative. Again, a lot of restoration work was going on, but most of the building had gone. On the other hand, it seemed in better condition than the ruins of the Roman bath I recall in Fiesole.

In general, I enjoyed our little visit to Arles. However, Arles' tourism body has some work to do. Overall, the presentation and the information provided at the Roman sites were far behind the very comprehensive audio guide provided in Orange's roman theatre. I saw my second French feline here, though (at the baths). Such a rare sight is indeed worth mentioning :-)

Photos of Arles.

Toujours Provence

At last! The Provence I had been waiting for, the Provence of golden sunshine on green fields and vineyards, the Provence of Peter Mayle. We had had a little taste of it in Chateauneuf-du -Pape. This afternoon, we would be going around the charming villages of Provence, some of “le plus beaux villages de France”.

We had picked up a number of people in Avignon (and dropped off the one chap who had joined us during the morning). Two were Japanese, one was Australian and another from Argentina, plus one American couple from (if I recall correctly) Michigan. So Caroline, our guide, had more people to explain things to. And since Americans tend to ask a lot of questions, we learnt a lot more. For example, the difference between lavende and lavendin. Apparently, the “true” lavender is lavende; it grows in higher regions and tends to be finer. Lavendin on the other hand grows at lower altitudes and tends to have a far stronger (not necessarily a bad thing?) and more camphorated smell. More details can be found on the lavender museum website (fine lavender is lavende and spike lavender, lavendin). According to the French, “true” lavender is found only in Provence but lavendin can be found anywhere (more common) such as the variety found in Hokkaido, Japan (the Japanese couple were saddened to hear this).

We also had the pleasure of hearing our guide correct the American gentleman’s attempts at pronouncing French words. I was reminded of the comment in Sixty Million Frenchmen that the French have no compunction about correcting pronunciation and grammar mistakes made by others.

Our first stop was however not in a little Provencal village but at Pont-du-Gard, a Roman aqueduct which spanned the River Gardon (at its narrowest point) and which is yet another UNESCO world heritage site. The total length of the aqueduct is about 50 kilometres, stretching from its originating spring, near Uzès to Nîmes. The bridge has three levels, the first the arches spanning the river, the next carrying the water and the third a series of small arches to cover the water channel so it arrives at its destination cleaner. It amazed me to see how broad the bridge was. It is broad enough for a little car to drive on. The bridge is in excellent condition – likely there have been some repairs and restoration work done but in general, those Romans did a good job. As I said before, they knew what they were doing.

Leaving the bridge, we went first to Les Baux de Provence. Now I am a little annoyed with myself because I didn’t catch that the chateau in this village is supposed to be one of those major sights to see in the whole of Provence. I can’t recall Caroline mentioning it, but she did mention most things so maybe I just missed it. Anyway, Les Baux is a village on a hill in the middle of this huge valley of strangely shaped stones. The houses in the village are made of similar stone – they are all of similar colour. Life must be hard here outside tourist season. It was already fairly windy when we were there – I cannot imagine what it must be like during the period of the mistral when the wind howls around the windows and doors. What was surprising was the large number of dogs in this little village. I can only conclude that there is a fair amount of domestic tourism and the French take their dogs on holiday. Sometimes, it can result in little confrontations...

We drove next to the little village of Gordes. Now Gordes is famous for being one of the most beautiful villages in France, but in addition it was the location for the café featured in the movie “A Good Year” starring Russell Crowe and Albert Finney (Russell Crowe’s character gets together with the owner of the café). I’d just happened to catch the movie on cable before leaving Singapore (I read the book as well – there are certain differences) and frankly, I found it hard to recognize the café, but fortunately our guide was able to direct us to the correct spot. Gordes was even windier than Les Baux and it seemed to me that some of the attractions were closed so even after you walk down the hill against the wind you don’t get rewarded by getting to see something interesting. We did visit the little village church.

It was at the point of our departure from Gordes that the Argentinian lady informed our guide that she had to catch the 7.40pm TGV train from Avignon to Lyon. Caroline said that she wished that the Argentinian lady could have told her a little earlier of the train time. Now here you must understand that there sometimes seems to be some differences in timing from the website to what the tour operator is working on. For example, we thought that our tour to the chateaux in the Loire Valley would end comfortably by 7pm when it ended a little after, resulting in a great rush for us to catch our train back to Paris. Here, she apparently thought the tour would end at 7pm when it was actually ending at 7.30pm. Moral of the story: always ask what time the tour ends and tell the driver if you need to take a train.

We rushed to the next stop – the village of Roussillon, famous for its beautiful red, orange and ochre coloured houses. The clay for the houses was taken from the nearby cliffs – which are of red, orange, ochre etc. It was probably the prettiest of the three villages we had seen that day. But the sun was going down and the shops were starting to close. Anyway, we rushed straight back to Avignon TGV station and got there by 7.30am – just in time for the Argentinian lady to catch her train! We gave Caroline a round of applause.

We drove back to Avignon city centre after that exciting dash to the train station. Since we were tired out, we had a quiet dinner of moulles frittes at a German eatery we had seen the previous day. Washed down with a glass of Kanterbrau beer.

Toujours Provence, indeed. It was A Good Day. Lots of great photos.


p.s. Incidentally it was not exactly my dream day in Provence. It was slightly overcast. But then, it does make it more comfortable to walk around.

In the footsteps of Popes and Emperors

Today, we took a day tour around Provence. I like taking day tours of the countryside; for people like us who don't want to drive around it makes a lot of sense because we can cover a lot of ground in one day. But because we covered so much ground, there's so much to say that I'll have to divide this into two posts.

Our first stop that morning was in Orange, to see the Roman ruins there - the triumphal arch and the antique theatre. Orange was originally known as Arausio but over time, the name got corrupted to Orange. It has nothing to do with the fruit. Our guide, Caroline, told us that the title of the Dutch “Prince of Orange” was originally derived from Orange here in France. I was puzzled. But looking it up when I got home, it appears that the title was originally derived through inheritance – the cross-border marriages of state which took place in those days. Even though the Prince of Orange has not “ruled” over Orange for centuries, the title is still used today. It reminds one how deeply rooted in its history Europe is, that the origins of these ancient names and titles are still known today.

Anyway, the first stop was at the well-preserved Roman triumphal arch, erected to mark the site of a great victory (the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and other arches are copies of the Roman arches). The sculptures on the sides of the arch still visible, as are the bullet marks, evidence of a less peaceful past. This was essentially a photo stop and we moved on quickly.

The antique theatre was seriously impressive. It is actually a UNESCO heritage site. I’d seen Roman ampitheatres before (Rome, Verona, Fiesole for example) but this was an antique theatre, an open-air theatre with a huge stage wall and the tiers of seats in front. In its day, it could seat up to 10,000 spectators. There was even some light roof covering. From what we were told, it is apparently the best preserved Roman theatre in Europe. The most prominent point in the theatre was a statue of the Emperor right at the top of the stage wall. There was a good audio tour which took us from point to point, and from this I learnt that actually the Emperor’s head could be removed, and would be replaced whenever there was a change in Emperor.

The rest of the stage wall would have been beautifully decorated with more statues in the niches. But these were removed over time. The theatre fell into disuse at one point and there were houses and even churches built inside it. There are little cavities in the stage wall, created by the inhabitants when they tried to use the wall as a support for beams and such. These were cleared out eventually and the theatre restored.

We climbed to the top of the theatre and there found a long covered corridor which curved around the seats. I was walking slightly ahead when my friend said that she couldn’t see me. I turned around and indeed she was not there – the curve of the corridor hid us from each other. That was when I realised just how good the acoustics were. It was like a whispering corridor – say something at one end and someone on the other end can hear it too. These Romans really knew their stuff.

The good thing about going on guided tours is that they take you very quickly to some key sights; the problem is that we miss a lot of little things along the way. In this case, we did not have time to look at the ruins of the temple beside the theatre or to visit the museum across from the theatre.

We went next to Chateauneuf-du-Pape, so called because the Popes in Avignon built a summer residence here to get away from the big city. The chateau is now a complete ruin, with only two walls left but there is a good view of the surrounding region from the hill. The popes did, however, leave an enduring legacy. They started vineyards and making wine here (one assumes it was for religious purposes). Today, Chateauneuf-du-Pape is an appellation wine. In a village of some 1,000 souls, there are 300 wine makers. I presume some of the employees are from the surrounding areas. Our guide noted that the reason why the area was so good for grapes was because of the rocky ground. The stones soak up the sunshine during the day, and then slowly releases the heat at the night.

We visited a wine museum and did a little wine-tasting of the Chateauneuf-du-Pape at maison Brotte. We tried the white and the red; apparently only 5% of the wine produced in this area is white wine, and is wholly consumed within France. The red wine is exported. Because of strict standards, the grapes of this wine must include Syrah (Shiraz) and Granache grapes. Here I must proudly boast about my very little wine knowledge, gathered over a few wine lessons: I could detect the peppery taste of the Granache grape.

After our wine tasting, our tour driver drove us back to Avignon; she had more passengers to pick up for the afternoon session. We had picked up some lunch (I got a beef pie) in Orange, we munched it as we went along. It was a good morning, which promised much for the afternoon.

Provence photos are here.