June 28, 2017

June 28, 2017

Our riverside hotel room is on the edge of the narrow old city of Arles, France.  We are only feet away from the view Van Gogh painted in his famous 'Starry Night over the Rhone'. The parking spaces available nearby are free overnight but costly during the day when tourists descend on the city. This morning we moved the car the three hundred yards to the free parking lot by the train station. There was only one open spot. Probably because of the Farmers Market taking over our section of Arles today.

After catching breakfast at a local bakery, Aimee dragged me through the Farmers Market that runs seemingly forever along the outside of the old City Walls. Eventually I pull her away and we find stairs that takes us over the walls into the town center.  Right ahead I see some Roman ruins. Arles was Julius Caesar’s capital of Trans-alpine Gaul. I read about Caesar's conquest of Gallic France in my High School Latin classes. This area was Rome’s first province over the Alps. That is why the region is known as Provence. Since it was Romanized so many years ago, Provence has as many ancient Roman ruins as Italy.

Right in front of us are the ruins of Arles’ Theater. Every Roman town had one for cultural and political presentations. It has been partially reconstructed and again used for local performances. Down the street is the Amphitheater or Arena.  This is where the Romans staged sporting events like gladiatorial battles and feeding Christians to lions. It is still in use today for bullfights.

A little further down the street is the Medieval Cloister of St Trophime. It and the church next door have some exquisite Romanesque sculptural decoration.

We are getting hungry so we pop next door to Forum Square for lunch.  We both have the Plat du Jour featuring a Catalon dish. Right as we are finishing, it starts to rain, so we hurry inside the Cryptoportico. This underground site has some of the original Forum arches. They are now 20 feet below modern Arles.

After lunch we make the long walk to Arles Museum of Antiquities. For the next hour or two we peruse the artifacts recovered from Roman Arles.  Despite the lack of English explanations it is still very interesting. The exhibit starts with a model of Roman Arles.  It is surprising how little the city has changed in the last 2000 years. Some of the statuary and bas-relief friezes preserved here are spectacular. There is also a whole section on mosaics recovered from upscale Roman villas across the River. The museum ends with dozens of sarcophagi popular in the late Roman era.

Arles was a major hub for Roman trade. Here goods were transferred from sea vessels to river boats for transport up and down the Rhone River. Lots of Amphora for transporting olive oil and wine are displayed along with a large wooden barge unearthed from the river bed.

Finished we hop on the Arles tourist bus for a ride to the Baths of Constantine.  Thermal Baths were a standard luxury item for all Roman towns. Next door we visited the uninteresting Reattu Art Museum.

We are running low on energy so we head home along the Rhone River pedestrian path. Right outside our hotel, we see a partially sunken River Cruise boat being salvaged for its interior furnishings. A diver pulls out a dozen chairs and a guitar and I-Pad. That must have ruined a nice vacation. Fortunately the boat overturned during the day (a month ago) when its passengers were ashore visiting Arles.