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Van Gogh-where?(1)

Van Gogh-where?(2

Visiting Arles

Museums-Alyscamps

restaurant recommendations

The place Lamartine was an important square for Van Gogh: there was the yellow house next to the grocery of Crevoulin and behind that the Cafe de la Gare of the couple Ginoux, with who he was friends. In the rue Montagne des Cordes, just after the railway viaduct, lived the mailman Roulin, who gave him his warm friendship. Van Gogh also often represented him, sometimes with his whole family, the baby Marcelle included (Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam). All this simple and plain people became priceless thanks to the paintings Van Gogh made of them. The same for Madame Ginoux, who became world famous in the role of "L'Arlesienne". According to a drawing "Pleasure garden with Vincent's house in the background" (Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam), we understand that where we stand now there used to be a pond with garden around. The same theme will be recurrent in works at the museum Kroller-Muller and the Phillips Collection in Washington. If we turn our look with reluctance to the right and rest it on the Monoprix, we need some fantasy to imagine that there used to stand the famous "Night Cafe" (Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven) and where Vincent painted that sad pool-hall. .
Let's get back to the Rhone embankment and look over the river. About the place we stand now, he painted the superb and extraordinary "Starry Night".
Let�s go now to the famous arenas of Arles. Dating from the end of the first century, the arenas are the showpiece of Arles. In it�s highest glory days it could contain about 20,000 spectators! The exterior walls are very impressive. After the departure of the Romans, it served as a fortification wall for a small village with 200 houses and two chapels. In 1825 the dismantling of the inside of the arenas was a fact. Only 3 out of the four medieval watchtowers remained and today it still serves for performances, corridas, shows and can contain 20,000 people.

The antique theater is less well conserved than the arenas, but merits your visit. It is a century older than the arenas and dates probably from 25 BC, the first years of the reign of Augustus. Which means that it is a pure product of the old Greek culture and not the brutal massivity of the later arena with its coercive arches and dictatorial walls where a lot of blood was spilled. The antique theater could receive about 12.000 visitors but still bears the signs of a brilliant Mediterranean culture to a level of elegance that the Romans had no idea of. A perfect example of Roman achievement being the Roman arena representing a pure symbol of will of power, power for eternity! At that time, Arles was very prosperous, thanks to the trade it that enriched the city because of its geographic situation ( the commercial roads to the south).  The tiers were partly restored but the pavements of the orchestra are still original. It is still used for the festival of Arles.