Arles

I have already made posts on Arles (last year…), especially referring to its long history (Greek, Roman…), to Vincent van Gogh… , but as this was the last place visited during the summer holidays and to make a complete report, before returning to my normal Paris posts, here is a bit more.

It’s logical that Arles offers a - modern - museum to cover its long history. Since recently the museum proposes a collection of what the last years have been discovered in the Rhone River - which crosses the city. The most remarkable find is probably the marble bust of Julius Caesar. Modern techniques allow giving such precise indications that the bust can be dated to 46 BC. It’s supposed to be the only remaining bust of Julius Caesar made during his lifetime.

The Archeological Museum where the bust now is exhibited is situated at the short end of what once was a Roman Circus (see the red arrows). Hardly anything remains of the Circus, contrary to the Roman Arenas, the Theatre, the Baths … still partly there. Among hundreds of statues and other objects exposed at the museum, you may also notice some extremely well preserved mosaic floors.

Arles presents this year for the 41st time its annual International Photography Festival (“Les Rencontres d’Arles”), considered as the world’s most important event on photography. Photos are exhibited in some 30 different spots in the city. Several expositions take place in some old railway workshops which will be further transformed during the next years and to become an International Photo and Image Centre. Frank Gehry is taking care of the architecture. (Photo from the official presentation of the project.)

Some pictures from the Church of Saint Trophime (12th – 15th century). In 1178, the Emperor of the Roman Empire, Frederick Barbarossa, was crowned in the church, then considered as a Cathedral; today just a beautiful parish church.

… and at last some pictures from the city, its inhabitants and visitors.

I wish you a nice weekend!

Arles

I’m back from some good two weeks in Provence, together with family – and meeting some blogger friends. Most of the time I spent in Arles, on which I already made a post on my previous blog, some two years ago, so this may be some kind of repetition. Anyhow...

Arles has a long Greek, Celtic and Roman history and the city has still a number of more or less complete buildings from those but also from medieval times.

The days were hot and it was nice to find some refreshments in the gardens ... and especially in the bars and restaurants.

I did not make use of any of the fully booked hotels. (The statue is of the province’s most famous poet, Frédéric Mistral, Nobel Prize winner 1904.)

Of course the reputation of Arles is to a large extent linked to Vincent van Gogh, who spent some very productive months here 1888-89, joined...

... by Paul Gauguin, who portrayed Vincent.

Picasso was a frequent visitor, especially for watching the bull fighting in the old Roman arena. He offered a large number of paintings and drawings to the city, which you can find in one of the city’s many museums (Musée Réattu), most of them representing Arles ladies (“arlésiennes”). One painting (from 1937, the same year as Guernica, with Lee Miller supposed to be the model) is inspired by van Gogh’s portrait of Madame Ginoux, his landlady.

Another famous lady of Arles is of course the person with the so far longest confirmed lifespan, Jeanette Calmant; she died at the age of 122 in 1997. (She met van Gogh when she was 13.)

Other Arles personalities include fashion designer Louis Féraud and the Gipsy Kings. Another fashion designer, Christian Lacroix, was also born in Arles and there is of course a small Lacroix shop to be found. Actes Sud, an important book publisher, and Harmonia Mundi, a famous label especially for classical music, have their homes in Arles.

Arles pretends to be a European centre for photography with French National School of Photography. This year takes place the 40th Photography Festival, with exhibitions all over the city. It’s a must for all the world’s leading photographers to exhibit here.

Several exhibitions take place at some by the French Railways abandoned workshops; a large area which is under transformation (by Frank Gehry) to an “image city”, planned to be ready latest 2013, when Arles, in cooperation with the close bigger city Mareseille and Aix-en-Provence has been chosen to be European Capital of Culture.

However, what I personally prefer about Arles is just to walk around the old houses and the narrow streets, just feeling the atmosphere.

... and of course the beaches of the Mediterranean are not far away!

Heading south for a while...

I will be off for some two or three weeks, not in the direction of this lighthouse, which is not to be found on the French coastline but is there to attract visitors to a Paris fish market (69, rue Castagnary, Paris 15).

I will rather again take the direction illustrated by these images, down to the south of France, spending some time with family and friends.

I will thus more or less leave the blogosphere for a while – should be back last week of August... although among the friends I expect to meet, there will certainly also be some bloggers.

Take care! See you (rather) soon!