Arles
On our way to Aix-en-Provence, the town of Cezanne we stopped for several hours in Arles the town of Van Gough.
But of course when Vincent was there he was an unknown madman, his genius completely unrecognised. So they lack any significant works of his.
But they are now very happy to cash-in on his legend having shunned him in life.
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Vincent
The town has quite a lot going for it, despite their inability to see a good thing in Vincent’s work when they saw it. There is a spectacular Roman amphitheatre similar to the Colosseum in Rome.
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Arènes d'Arles
This is used for bullfights but they no longer kill the bulls, who apparently love the applause and put on a good show (I made that bit up – it’s bull).
In addition there is a smaller Roman Theatre that has unfortunately shrunk since it was built due to its being a readymade source of pre-cut building materials.
A plaque on the site says Julius Caesar built it but that seems unlikely - I doubt he was into hefting large stones and even in its diminished state there are just too many big ones for one man to heft alone. I imagine it means that it was originally built by those reporting to Julius Caesar when he was briefly resident here.
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Around Arles
We found Arles to be a pleasant distraction and had quite a good lunch in the cafe you can see in the picture above. But it was Italian, not French, maybe in deference to Julius Caesar?