Antique Arles

Arles has been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. This is not just for its Roman heritage, but also for its Romanesque. Romanesque architecture dates from around the turn of the first millenium, and is characterised by simple, almost austere, models. Romanesque churches are low affairs, with thick walls and small windows. It wasn't until the later gothic period that the strong potential of pointed arches and flying buttresses allowed churches and cathedrals to climb towards the heavens.

This is a good thing. It is impossible to deny the importance of Roman-era Arelate. Settled by veterans of Caesar's legions, the town became a trade mecca, an entry point on the route up the Rhone valley to the northern colonies. In contrast to those benighted outposts Arelate was a senatorial province, replresented in all the Roman councils of state. The town was beautified by a number of public diversions, that still can be seen in part - a 10,000 seater theatre, a 20,000 seater arena, a chariot-racing circus that sat a similar number, grand public baths. However I failed to be impressed by these surviving monuments. The baths and theatre can be safely avoided, and there is next to nothing visible of the circus. The arena might be worth a nosey, but it is in use by modern audiences for bullfighting. However, the cream of Roman civilisation can be seen at the Musée de l'Arles Antiques. This is a very worth-while stop, and illustrates the development of the town with marvellous models and exhibits. Pride of place must go to the luminous mosaic floors with their mythological images.

The Romanesque remains in Arles I found more engaging. Here, check out the Cathédrale St Trophime in the central Place de la République. Its porch is a riot of frothy 12th century carvings, all wise kings, holy saints, and fire-blasted sinners. Entry to the cathedral is free. If you enjoy this, it is worth popping next door to the cloisters to see some more for €3.50.

Les Alyscamps is located in the south-east of the city. This is a pleasant trail between Roman sarcophagi to a haunting Romanesque church, made famous by Van Gogh. It is atmospheric, pleasant, and recommended.

Van Gogh is pretty much the main man here in Arles. His stay in the late 1880s does not seem to have done much for his health or sanity, but it worked wonders for his output. Markers in the pavements lead you on a walking tour of sites painted by the Dutchman. The town has a Fondation Van Gogh, a Centre Van Gogh, the Van Gogh walking tour - all it lacks really is any work by Van Gogh (only one of his works remains in Provence, and that is in the Musée Angladon in Avignon).

Quick Tips:

As opposed to paying separate entrance fees, there are two joint passes that you can buy at any attraction: the Pass Romain, and the Pass Monuments. The Pass Romain is €9.00 and gives access to Arena, Theatre, Thermes and Alyscamps. The Pass Monuments (€13.50, or €12.00 for concessions) covers the above, and also the Cloisters of St Trophime, and the Museés Réattu and Arlatan. These are worth-while if you want to see everything Arles has to offer. However, my money-saving tip would actually be to not bother. I bought the €9.00 Pass Romain, but in hindsight I would recommend avoiding the Thermes and the Theatre (you can see most of the latter through the railings for free). You might want to check out the Arena, though I wasn't impressed. I would suggest going to Les Alyscamps though, and also the cathedral cloisters. Even so, Arena, Alyscamps and Cloisters only total €12.50, giving you a saving against the Pass Monuments.

Arles is quite uncommon, in that in my view the town itself is the star. If the monuments failed to enchant me, I must confess to falling in love with the pretty streets. You immediately understand why so many artists flocked to Arles. The light is brilliant, and picks out every detail in your surroundings. Just a step away from the main streets you will find empty alleyways and courtyards, ivy, painted shutters, wrought iron lamps and cracked plasters. It all seems very much as it must have been when Vincent visted back in the 19th century.

A stroll down by the embankments of the mighty River Rhone is well worthwhile. You get a lovely cooling breeze off the water on a hot day. One unusual highlight for me was a crossing of the Pont de Trinquetaille. A previous visitor has taken a marker pen to the metal guard rail. Mostly the unknown scribe's comments concern his abject dislike of Arles, though they also make pithy (and to my mind, hilarious) criticism of everything from the music of Joy Division ("Ian Curtis was a tosser - swivel!") to modern British 'guerilla artists' ("David Shrigley is a wanker"). Maybe you have to know Shrigley's art to get that latter one. In fact, I'm half convinced the hand-writing is that of Shrigley himself...

Best Way To Get Around:

Within the town centre you will need to walk. Unless you take the horrible motorised tourist train that trundles around. Only two sites are anything more than a few steps from each other - the Musée de l'Arles Antique to the west beyond the flyover, and Les Alyscamps off Boulevard des Lices in the south west. Fortunately, both are well sign posted. There are tiles inset in the pavements to guide you on walking tours devoted to the town's Roman heritage, or to the works of Van Gogh.

Getting to Arles is easy, as it is well-connected to other centres in Provence by bus, train or TGV. I came down from Avignon for €6.40 each way. When using the ticket machine at the train station be very careful what you are paying for however. The machine will automatically come up with the earliest departure, even if it is not the quickest route - it may well try to put you on a hour-long bus journey through Tarascon, or a train to Avignon TGV with a 90 minute wait for a connecting train into Avignon Centre. Scrolling past a dozen options I eventually found the train I wanted. It may leave 11 minutes after all the other options, but its 19 minute journey got me into Avignon a lot earlier than all the other options...

The gare and gare routiere are located to the north of the town, outside the Porte de la Cavalerie and across the Place Lamartine. However, the train station platform seems to be infested with sneaky mosquitos. Having avoided them all week, I was finally bitten on every single limb whilst waiting there on my very last day.

The town does not have an airport of its own, however it is ringed by three towns with their own. The major city of Marseilles lies to the south east. It has a sprawling airport with several terminaux; Marseille-Provence2 sits next door to serve budget airlines (I flew here from Manchester). To the north-west is the rural Nimes airport. This only handles cargo and Ryanair flights - I flew back from here to Liverpool. It is in a very rural location however, and I saw no sight of public transport connections. To the north is Avignon airport, which serves Edinburgh and Exeter in the UK.

I had a fantastic meal at la Caravelle - despite not knowing all the words on the menu!

This restaurant / cocktail bar can be found in Place Constantin,a triangular space sandwiched in between the marshmallow stripes of the Thermes de Constantin, and the embankment of the River Rhone on Quai Marx Dormoy. Upstream is the Actes Sud complex; downstream the Musée Réattu. I think this was reflected in the clientele, who added a mix of cosmopolitan artistic individuals to the tourists. Though there is a dining room inside, past the bar, only one couple sat in there; everyone else crowded on to the sunshade-shaded tables outside, to enjoy the early afternoon sunlight. I may have arrived at the wrong time (13:15). I think quite a number of people had arrived just before me, meaning that the one waiter was rushed off his feet. This meant I was waiting some 40 minutes for my starter, but I can't really hold that against him.

The restaurant only has one menu, chalked up on a board. The waiter will bring this to your table. There are not a huge number of options on there, but they range from Gazpacho soup, to local lamb, to ostrich steaks.They are also strong in fish. For the more economical there are some set menus. There is a child's menu for €9.50 featuring smaller portions and fresh fruit. There is a €15 menu which is the house lasagne, dessert of the day, and a glass of wine / cup of coffee. I went for the €18 menu. This was a starter of Soupe de Moules, entree of Poulet d'écrevisses, and then the day's dessert. I fully admit that I did not know what 'écrevisses' meant - it was not a word I recognised, and it did not feature in the back of my guidebook. I could have asked the waiter (indeed, I had a conversation with him about it afterwards), but somehow that would be cheating. So I ordered the 'chicken'. To go with this I asked for a glass of orange juice. This added an extra €3 to my €18 lunch, but the waiter also brought out a tall carafe of tapwater for me without asking. Now, if I'd ordered water I'd have got a bottle of mineral water, costing at least €2.00, so this worked out as being pretty economical!

The Soupe de Moules (pronounced 'moo-les', rather than 'mools' apparently) was Mussel Soup. I had not sampled the Moules et Frites I had seen advertised throughout Provence, so I thought this was my chance. However, for those who like neither the look or texture of shellfish this would be a safe option. The saffron yellow soup that I was served (in a surprisingly large bowl) was well blended. It tasted seafood-y, with a salty tang, but there were no slimy blobs lurking at the bottom. On the whole it had the thickness of a potato, and the optional croutons (small round slices of toasted bread rather than cubes) were a nice touch.

If my starter was yellow, my main course was red. And I soon discovered what 'écrevisses' were! My plate came out - a cake of rice, a very thick chicken breast (I wonder where they get their poultry from?), a red mariniere-style ragu... and three whole crayfish, each a deep beef-tomato red. Ecrevisse means crayfish. This was an unexpected - and pleasant - surprise. Before long I was tearing open the shells by hand and winkling out the meat within. A lack of a napkin was a bit of an issue, but I continued to peel away at the crayfish, sucking my fingers clean of the ragu with satisfied slurps. Here was I, sat out in the sun by a Roman-era ruin, eating messily and enjoyably, the way a true Frenchman would. (Or so I thought; it was only after I had finished that I saw a local tucking into his crayfish, wielding his knife and fork like a pro to expertly separate the carapace from the meat within...).

After this, the dessert of the day was pretty straightforward, a cooling creamy glass of pannacotta topped with pieces of candied pineapple.

Overall my meal was €21 (£17.50). You can certainly get cheaper lunches in Arles, but I wonder if you can get better. I would certainly recommend La Caravelle. And a word of advice - if you don't know what something on the menu is, ask the waiter!

If the Roman monuments in Arles have left you feeling a little disappointed, I can guarantee that the Romanesque monuments will not. Indeed, when Arles was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, it was for its Romanesque heritage as well as its Roman. The Cathédrale St Trophime is in my opinion the jewel in Arles' crown.

Emerging on to the obelisk-anchored Place de la République, it is the jazzy frontage of the Cathédrale that immediately grabs the attention. And holds it. The front jutting portal is a maelstrom of exquisite 12th-century carving, making the porch look like some sort of delicate meringue. Outwardly, it is simple. A succession of 'false' columns, half-projecting from the pale stone, with a saintly figure enthroned in the space between. These saints are pretty much life size. Above is a narrow frieze of the blessed and damned - the holy process in robes, trooping off to Heaven; the unholy are chained together, licked by the flames of Hell itself. In the centre of semicircular space above the narrow twin door sits Christ in an almond-shaped mandorla, dispensing his Last Judgement. Look up - on the underneath of the curved lintel is the angelic chorus, singing and playing instruments.

Yet there is a lot of incidental imagery which attracts the eye. On the exterior left of the porch carvings of Adam & Eve (Christian) share space with those of Hercules (pagan). Just to the right of the door slumps a depressed-seeming king, molested by a pair of lions. He appears to be having a moan about his predicament on his mobile phone! You can easily lose a good twenty minutes here ogling the amazing stonework. I'm amazed that it has survived in such good condition for over eight centuries.

Entrance to the Cathédrale is free. From the outide you can just see a mass of blackness, pierced by the vivid costume-jewellery hues of the stained glass at the far end over the altar. Yet once in, the vaulted space is lighter than you would think. The stone is ash-grey, except where beams of daylight hit it. Then the masonry turns a warm sandy colour. There are some Roman sarcophagi, reused as altars and fonts, the aforementioned stained glass, and in a side chapel to the right some very very faint traces of murals. This chapel also contains a modern rose-pink marble font, a gift from the British government. For it was on this site in 597AD that St Augustine was consecrated as the first bishop of the English, and sent on his way to convert those peoples to Christianity. The ties between Canterbury, site of his diocese, and Arles remain strong to this day.

Further stonecarving is located in the cloisters behind the Cathédrale, accessible through an arch to the right of the church on Place de la République. You have to pay to enter these, so I shall review them elsewhere.

The artistry and flair of the 12th-century Provencal masons is, for me, one of the chief attractions of this town. And it is free for everyone to enjoy. Do not miss out.

If you enjoyed the luscious carvings surounding the Cathédrale porch, head next door for more. An entrance off Place de la République just to the south of St Trophime. There may be queue heading off to the right here; bypass it - this is the Festival box office. Instead continue into the sundrenched courtyard. This was the private courtyard of the Arles bishopric. Indeed, the bishop's palace surrounds you now. Head diagonally across the cout to a short flight of steps. This leads up to the entrance to the cloisters. It costs €3.50, and is open from 9am to 6pm over summer.

The cloisters circumnavigate a square of parched grass, set with pink blossomed trees. At first glance the grey stonework is disappointing. This is because the west gallery (where you enter) was built in the 14th century. Persevere and continue anti-clockwise to the 12th-century galleries. Here you find more superb carved columns, lintels and window frames dating from the same era as the Cathédrale porch. There are contemplative holy men, wise kings, and muscled heroes clutching pillars. Off the cloisters to the western side was the former refectory of the canons of the diocese; to the north was the chapter house; upstairs on the eastern side their dormitory. You can still go up and walk around on the balconied cloister roof.

At the time of my visit these rooms were taken over as part of a photography festival sponsored by local-boy-made-good Christian Lacroix, the fashion designer beloved of Edie and Patsy in 'Absolutely Fabulous' ("Lacroix, sweetie!"). The first room was a scrapbook collage of fashion photos with the odd sudden recognisable image - David Bowie, Kirk Douglas, Zandra Rhodes, and what I at first glance took to be the cover of Captain Beefheart's 'Trout Mask Replica'. In another room, Lacroix's director of communications has a vast ego wall - countless polaroid snaps of him with models - Jodie Kidd, Erin O'Connor, Lily Cole ("Close your eyes and think of Erin O'Connor / Or pretend I'm Lily Cole / And I'll imagine that you're / Someone else as well" to quote the Long Blondes).

One final room had an intriguing set of fashion plates by Richard Avery, taken from his 1995 New Yorker portfolio "In Memory of the Late Mr & Mrs Comfort: a Fable". This is a disturbing set of 26 photographs of a designer-clad couple in a decaying background. 'Mrs Comfort' is model Nadja Auerman. 'Mr Comfort' is a rather spiffily-dressed skeleton. You could call it a postmodern deconstruction of the high fashion business. If you wanted to. And I think Avery does. Still, it's interesting.

These glossy images sit rather strangely amid all the Romanesque saints and faded tapestries, but they do provide something to do it the otherwise bare rooms off the cloister. however, I think the cloister carvings should really be your main focus. While they are not as plentiful or joyous as those of the Cathédrale porch, they are still lovely.

Arriving in Arles by train or bus, one of the first sights you will happen across once through the Porte de la Cavalerie is the Amphitheatre. This squat tyre-shaped arena has two levels of arches.

The arena is open 9am to 6pm in summer. Entrance is €5.50, or covered by one of the two passes in town. The Pass Romain is €9.00 and gives access to Arena, Theatre, Thermes and Alyscamps. The Pass Monuments (€13.50, or €12.00 for concessions) covers the above, and also the Cloisters of St Trophime, and the Museés Réattu and Arlatan.

The history of the amphitheatre is probably the most intersting thing about it. Roman Arles was already a bustling and thriving provincial city with a theatre for entertainment before the arena was added around 90AD. This new amphitheatre hosted free spectacles for up to 20,000 sponsored by local worthies. I have to say though, looking down at the grey tiers, now overlaid with mode modern cantilevered wooden seating, I am amazed that so many would be able to cram into this place. It seemd to me much smaller than other amphitheatres I have seen in Rome, Verona and Tunisia.

The symmetry of the circuit is interrupted by two towers, one of which you can ascend. In the middle ages the amphitheatre was re-imagined as a fortress. When it was cleared out in the early 19th-century this space contained 212 houses and two churches.

While a walk within the vaulted wall spaces is enjoyable with patches of light and shade, the actual arena itself is almost invisible behind its shroud of seating. Protective barriers and a sand-strewn floor obscure the stone. Yet, this is what it would presumably have resembled, in spirit anyway, back 1900 years ago. Doubtless the Romans would approve that even today their amphitheatre is still in use for its original purpose, that of bloodsports. For from 1830 onwards, this arena has been used for bull-fighting.

I was a little disappointed with the amphitheatre I must admit. Its modern reinvention hides the history here. It does not 'speak' of antiquity to the visitor. Maybe it would be more redolent of the Romans were you to visit for a corrida, cramming on to the seating on a sultry summer's evening with a barbarous mob baying for blood, while below gladiator and beast duel for your amusement. Mostly though, I found this thought depressing, as an example of how little we as a supposedly 'civilised' species have progressed in almost two millenia.

The extant Roman remains of Arles left me cold; however, this fabulous in-depth museum conjures up that world. I would heartily recommend a visit to those interested in the development of the Roman colonies.

The Musée de l'Arles Antique is a bit of a trek out from the town centre. It is located by the scant remains of what was once the colony's elongated circus (the central obelisk from this now stands in the Place de la République). You have to walk down the length of the Boulevard Georges Clemenceau, turn right through a carpark, left under the graffitied underpass, and past the skate park. As I trudged I thought "Why can't the museum be placed somewhere more central?" I soon saw why.

The museum is a big blue bunker of a building that takes up quite a lot of space to best display the relics of ancient Arles. Apart from the choice of colour cheme, from the outside it reminded me of the Römisch-Germanisches Museum in Cologne. Inside it was equally reminiscent, with a series of good exhibits, and a clear charter to explain the development of the colony of 'Arelate', settled by demob-happy veterans of Julius Caesar's legions. There are a lot of explanatory panels within (in French). However upon entry (€5.50) you get an A3 sheet of paper in English with a map of the triangular building and an overview of the separate sections; you also get a brochure that must be returned which translates most of those panels in greater detail. Sections are clearly separated (though sometimes in a bit of a jumbled order). They correspond to, for example, Protohistory, the Roman City (further split into sections such as 'Romanisation' and 'the Army'), the Forum, the Amphitheatre, the Economy (including 'Trade', 'Industry', and 'Water'), Daily Life ('Homes', 'Health' etc), Gods and Heroes, and Funerary Rites. There are maps of Arelate at various stages of development, and models of the city and its key features - the forum, the theatre, the circus, the cemetaries, its famous 'bridge of boats' which spanned the Rhone etc. One fascinating model is of the watermill at Barbegal. An aqueduct brought water, which was then split into two channels running downhill. Each channel held eight water wheels. These sixteen mills were then capable of grinding 4.5 tons of flour a day to support the town. If we accept the truism that all that was necessary to run the empire was 'bread and circuses', that's the bread covered. What about the circuses? Well, its theatre could seat 10,000 spectators, its amphitheatre could seat twice as many, and the hippodrome could also seat 20,000. The town's prosperity is evident in its civic monuments. In terms of statuary, the Venus of Arles now stands in the Louvre, but this museum holds a replica. Or rather, a replica of a replica, as the original itself was presumably a copy of a work by the great Greek sculpter Praxiteles. The goddess of love has distinctive Madonna-esque pointy boobs. They have to be fake, right? Venus is represented here as she was the mythical ancestor of the Juliae clan, that of Caesars Julius and Augustus. A vainglorious representation of a youthful Emperor Augustus is all tousled locks, muscley chest, and rock-hard abs. By contrast, a bust of what is assumed to be the bearded Emperor Hadrian looks, to British eyes, like a fat Rory McGrath.

Aside from the Emperor cult, traditional Roman gods do not seem to have been very entrenched here. The town was a nexus for trade and commerce (Romans would sail to Arelate, before following the Rhone valley north to the less civilised edges of their empire. A trade route ran up the Rhone to the Rhine and Colonnia Agripensis, moden day Cologne, a further link to that German city and its museum). As a result it seems to have been a melting pot, full of traders from all fringes of the empire. There are signs that the cults of the Egyptian goddess Isis and the mystical middle-eastern Mithras made significant inroads here. The success of Mithras, the bearded young god who defeated evil by dying and then being resurrected in glory, foreshadowed the later success of Christianity.

Likewise, the inhabitants of Arelate spread outwards. This was one of the few senatorial provinces, which returned dignitaries to Rome. A very few local soldiers even served in the elite Praetorian Guard, bodyguards to the Imperial family. Other soldiers from the town, as we know from tombstones, served in theatres as far away as Britain, Africa and Cappadocia (central Turkey).

Yet, fascinating as all this detail and context is, if you are to visit for only one thing, it would have to be the mosaics. Rescued from private villas they are evidence of a very wealthy class of citizens. And they are masterpieces. You can climb to a gallery to see them from above. Here you can see Orpheus charming the animals; Aion, god of Time, with the Zodiacal wheel and framed by nymphs; Jupiter as a bull, whisking a lounging Europa across the sea. There are lots of simple regular patterns - including those that modern eyes call swastikas.

This museum is spaciously laid out, interspersing reconstructions and monumental masonry (statues, plaques, sarcophagi) with cases of smaller domestic wares - devotional objects, pots and cutlery, jewellery). At €5.50 (less than £5) this is well worth a look, and makes up for what the remaining Roman monuments in the heart of town lack in terms of atmosphere.

Just south of the Arena, through Place Henri Bornier, sits the earlier Roman theatre. This was once a massive edifice when first constructed in the 1st century BC. It was also lavishly decorated. The Venus of Arles that once graced it now resides in the Louvre, though a copy is in the Musée de l'Arles Antique, along with the theatre's statues of dancers and the Emperor Augustus. Once it would have rivalled the theatre upstream in Orange. Once it sat 10,000 people. Today however this theatre is but a shadow of its former self. Used for masonry by later generations of townsfolk, or just built over, its adornments spirited away to museums, all that remains now is a shallow saucer with only two tiers of seating. Only two columns remain in situ. It is still in use (a poster stated that Massive Attack would be playing there in a couple of weeks!). Rigging and a projector screen obscured the view of the stage when I visited. Workmen's dust filled the air in gritty clouds.

The theatre is open 9am to 6pm in summer. Entrance is €3.00, or covered by one of the two passes in town. The Pass Romain is €9.00 and gives access to Arena, Theatre, Thermes and Alyscamps. The Pass Monuments (€13.50, or €12.00 for concessions) covers the above, and also the Cloisters of St Trophime, and the Museés Réattu and Arlatan. However, you can see most of the theatre by peering through the railings outside. It is really not worth paying to enter in my opionion.

Another legacy of the Roman era is the Thermes de Constantin. These public baths beside the Rhone date from comparatively late in the Imperial age, probably built as late as the 4th century.

From the exterior you can still get an idea of their former grandeur. There is a bulbous 'apse'-like affair, constructed of white brickwork, interspersed with pink tiling, like a marshmallow. This is interesting, as it prefigures the fanous pink banding that historically identified the walls of Christian Constantinople. Inside are the remains of three separate chambers - caldarium (hot room), tepidarium (warm room), and frigidarium (cold room). The complex probably extended further in its heyday, with changing rooms, and an exercise field.

The internal remains are very scanty though. You spend most of your time trying to work out the orientation of the leaflet map to figure out precisely what you are meant to be looking at. There are well preserved remains of a hypocaust. This was flooring raised on pillars, and through which hot air from countless fires would circulate. Likewise, pipes ran up through the walls to heat those as well. However, unless you are keenly fascinated by Roman public sanitary architecture I would recommend skipping a visit. If you do wish to enter the baths are open from 9am to 6pm in summer (though they close from noon until 2pm for lunch). Entrance is €5.50, or covered by one of the two passes in town. The Pass Romain is €9.00 and gives access to Arena, Theatre, Thermes and Alyscamps. The Pass Monuments (€13.50, or €12.00 for concessions) covers the above, and also the Cloisters of St Trophime, and the Museés Réattu and Arlatan.

A dreaded sunny day, so let's go where we're happy and I'll meet you at the cemetry gates [sic]. This south-eastern adjunct to the town centre, a narrow shaded pathway, is wonderfully atmospheric. If Arles' Roman monuments failed to really impress me, whilst the Romanesque did, this brief walk combines the best of both worlds.

Roman citizens were always buried without the town walls. Ancient Arelate had necropolises flanking the roads from each of its gates. This graveyard survives due to the first bishop of Arles, St Genest. When he was buried here, the place became attractive to worshippers. Christian graves hence were nestled next to Roman tombs. Indeed, the name 'Les Alyscamps' translates as 'The Elysian Fields', peaceful final resting place of eroes in Gallo-Roman mythology. Another French spelling would be 'Les Champs-Elysees'.

From the Roman theatre cross the gardens, and then the wide Boulevard des Lices. Avenue des Alyscamps leads south by the large moden Gendarmerie, crossing the railway tracks and Canal de Craponne. A dark tree-shaded walk leads off to a ticket booth. Entry is €3.50. It is also covered by the town's two separate passes. The Pass Romain is €9.00 and gives access to Arena, Theatre, Thermes and Alyscamps. The Pass Monuments (€13.50, or €12.00 for concessions) covers the above, and also the Cloisters of St Trophime, and the Museés Réattu and Arlatan. Les Alyscamps is open to the public from 9am to 6pm in summer.

Essentially, the site is merely a cool shaded walk, flanked by tombs and sarcophagi. Bear in kind however, that the most impressive have been relocated to the Musée de l'Arles Antique. At the far end stands the 12th-century priory of St Honorat. It is hence contemporary with the Cathédrale. In the main this is a bare Romanesque chuch, though it has a few gothic stylings (pointed arches and the like). Inside it is home only to smashed amphorae, bird droppings, and Masonic symbols etched into the pillars. It is hauntingly quiet. Don't miss the spiral staircase in the back left corner which proves a spookily atmospheric way to enter the crypt / undercroft... with worryingly loose flagstones down there!

This peaceful retreat from the city is wonderful. It is no wonder that it has become so famed. Medieval poetry, at a loss to explain the presence of so many of the dead, fancifully located Charlemagne's battle against the Saracens in its vicinity. Dante's 'Inferno' also gives a big shout out to the Alyscamps. It is most famous though for its appearance in art. Gauguin and Van Gogh scoped out the shaded way in the autumn of 1888, and there is a board displaying a reproduction of Van Gogh's 'Les Alyscamps' to one side. Not much has changed since those days except that the skirts nowadays are shorter, and on my visit brollies were not as much in evidence. Oh, and to my eyes the tombs were not jade green, and the tree trunks were not aquamarine.

Lovely!