Arles and Les Baux

Friday, 23^rd August

We set off in the morning for Arles, a bigger city about 15kms from St Remy. We arranged a time to meet back at the car and Karol and Michael went in one direction, and we went in another.

Arles was where Vincent Van Gogh lived for about a year. We wanted to follow in the trail of Vincent Van Gogh and find the places where he had painted around Arles. We were able find several spots, which had been signposted with replicas of the paintings. It was a great way to have a good look around Arles. Not only was it interesting to see where Vincent lived and painted, but also to see quite a lot of Roman ruins, medieval and Renaissance buildings.

We returned to the hotel, and I relaxed and Dick went for a walk to explore St Remy. Vincent Van Gogh was admitted to the mental hospital in St Remy and was there for a year. There is also a “Vincent” walk in St Remy and Dick found 20 of the 21 locations. The 21^st is currently being renovated.

There is also an ancient Roman site in St Remy, which is the oldest town in France and has been occupied since 700 years BC.

In the early evening, we drove to Les Baux, an old hilltop town about 8kms for St Remy. The castle ruins and village buildings are made from limestone, quarried in the valley below. In the 1820s a substance was discovered that could be made into aluminium, and was named “bauxite” after the town. The town has many ancient ruins, a castle, chapel and houses in caves. There are many displays of old weapons, such as crossbows, catapults, battering rams and tebuchets ( a bit like a catapult). We got there just before 7pm and it was the best time – most of the visitors were leaving, the weather was cooler, and the sunset was glorious across the valley. We spent a couple of hours here and really enjoyed the fabulous views, and the peaceful calm, even as we were scrambling up steep steps and rocky paths.

We returned to St Remy for a late dinner, back to the same place as last night - 13 euros for 3 courses is hard to beat!