Jun 9th - Avignon (DT to Arles)

Our last day-trip of the week and this time to Arles, famous for its Roman ruins and its association with Van Gogh. 

It was a positive start to our visit as walking along the Rhône River, and then through town, we got that ‘this is a nice place’ feeling as we headed off from the station to the tourist office. 

Our first cab off the rank was a visit to the Cryptoportiques.  Built nearly 2000 years ago, these were the foundation cellars for the Roman Forum which was then built on top.  About 10 metres wide, and running several hundred metres in length, these parallel galleries are separated by pillars in a large U shape and are a fantastic example of well preserved ancient Roman architecture.  

Moving on from the dark and damp cellars we took off to the Roman ‘Théâtre Antique’.  Built around 12 BC during the reign of Caesar Augustus, it originally held about 8-10,000 spectators.  Unfortunately though little of substance remains as the site was sadly decimated when scavenged for its stone and marble during the barbarian invasions in the Middle Ages.  

Just alongside the ‘Théâtre Antique’ is the Amphitheatre, or the Arènes d’Arles, and this was our next stop.  Inspired by the Colosseum, and built in 90 AD, the stadium could seat around 25,000 and was used for the likes of Gladiator fights and other such celebrations.  It’s still in use today, but, due to a serious absence of Gladiators, only for plays, bullfighting and concerts! 😊

We couldn’t come to Arles without doing something Van Gogh...ish and so our next visit was to the ‘Van Gogh Fondation’, an art gallery displaying works ‘inspired’ by the man himself apparently.  We should’ve known, as in hindsight it had the words ‘contemporary art’ written all over it! 🤮🙄😫.  The one saving grace however was an on-loan exhibition of a few VG originals which certainly made up for any other disappointment! 😀 

Art?

Our last visit of the day was to the Musée Réattu, an art museum housed in a lovely little 15th century building that had formerly been a ‘Grand Priory of the Order of Malta’ (a Roman Catholic military order).  Much of the art here is by a local painter, Jacques Réattu, after whom the museum is named and of which didn’t really do much for us.  However, Picasso once held an exhibition here and in one room there’s some of his art from that time and which was a little more interesting.