$5.95 U.S. / $6.95 Canada / francemagazine.org No.90 the best of culture, travel & art de vivre Summer 2009 ARLES Goes Gehry The Art of Christian BOLTANSKI Artisanal BEER
w When the mistral stops blowing, leaving the sky above <strong>Arles</strong> a cloudless, impossible blue, locals like to gather at café tables set up on the Place du Forum, basking in sunlight and 2,000 years of history. Two Roman columns—remnants of an ancient temple—are part of the façade of a hotel where Picasso used to sleep; nearby, a marble statue honors 19th-century poet and native son Frédéric Mistral. <strong>Arles</strong> has been shaped by some 2,000 years of history. CloCkwise from above: Café Van Gogh, one of the city’s many tributes to the troubled artist; a Roman-era funerary statue at the Musée de l’<strong>Arles</strong> Antique; the impressive amphitheater, symbol of the town’s importance during the Roman Empire. sided with Julius Caesar in his civ<strong>il</strong> war against Pompey, who was backed by Marse<strong>il</strong>le. Caesar preva<strong>il</strong>ed and rewarded <strong>Arles</strong> (then called Arelate) by founding a Roman colony here and granting it Marse<strong>il</strong>le’s confiscated territory. It is st<strong>il</strong>l the largest commune in France, extending north to the Alp<strong>il</strong>les, east to the arid Crau and south to the Mediterranean through the Camargue, the w<strong>il</strong>d marshy plain where black bulls roam among white horses, and rice fields give way to sandy beaches. Anxious to convince local populations that it was a desirable new order, the young Roman Empire lavished <strong>Arles</strong> with architecture, entertainment and creature comforts. The town was located at a strategic intersection—waterways linked Gaul to the Mediterranean, and trade routes connected Spain and Italy. “There was no better place than this busy crossroads for displaying symbols of Roman culture,” says Claude Sintès, director of the Musée de l’<strong>Arles</strong> Antique. Which explains why the city, dubbed “little Rome in Gaul,” has a collection of Roman monuments second only to those in the Italian capital and a historic center now classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Among <strong>Arles</strong>’s many ancient edifices is a theater—once an ideal tool for introducing locals to the Roman language and lifestyle. Magnificent when it was bu<strong>il</strong>t in the 1st century B.C., the Théâtre Antique became a quarry after the Empire’s fall, stripped to a lonely pair of columns now nicknamed “the two widows.” Today its ruins serve as a romantically decayed setting for concerts and f<strong>il</strong>ms. Across the way, the sunflower-yellow Café la Nuit is an example of life-imitating-art-imitating-life: It is a replica of an establishment formerly located here and immortalized in one of Vincent Van Gogh’s most famous canvases. “Ah, how I wish you could see all that I am seeing these days,” the artist wrote to his brother shortly after painting the scene. “In front of so many lovely things, I can only let myself go.” Contemporary residents feel much the same way. Yet it would be a mistake to think that <strong>Arles</strong> is a city mired in its glorious past. Roman slaves may have carved its ancient monuments, but Frank Gehry is sketch- Anxious to ing plans for its future. The city’s convince local history has been a roller-coaster populations that it ride of booms and busts, and was a desirable after a period of stagnation, this new order, the provincial burg of 52,000 is now young Roman roaring back to life. Young peo- Empire lavished ple and artists are moving in, new <strong>Arles</strong> with stores and restaurants are opening architecture, (including three Michelin-starred entertainment tables), and an heiress is investing and creature m<strong>il</strong>lions of euros to develop a comforts. major cultural complex featuring a bu<strong>il</strong>ding by one of the world’s most famous architects. That <strong>Arles</strong> is embracing the 1st and 21st centuries with equal enthusiasm is not the least of its charms. Greek Phoenicians first settled this site in the 6th century B.C., drawn to its prime location on a h<strong>il</strong>ltop above a fork in the Rhône river. The city prospered as a trading port, and in the 1st century B.C. 40 France • summer 2009
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