GEO correspond-il à vos attentes ? - Les Suds à Arles

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When the mistral stops blowing, leaving
the sky above Arles 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.
Arles 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’Arles Antique; the impressive
amphitheater, symbol
of the town’s importance
during the Roman Empire.
sided with Julius Caesar in his
civil war against Pompey, who
was backed by Marseille. Caesar
prevailed and rewarded Arles
(then called Arelate) by founding
a Roman colony here and granting
it Marseille’s confiscated territory.
It is still the largest commune
in France, extending north to
the Alpilles, east to the arid Crau
and south to the Mediterranean
through the Camargue, the wild
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 Arles 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’Arles 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 Arles’s many ancient edifices is a theater—once an ideal tool
for introducing locals to the Roman language and lifestyle. Magnificent
when it was built 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 films.
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 Arles 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
Arles with
stores and restaurants are opening
architecture,
(including three Michelin-starred
entertainment
tables), and an heiress is investing
and creature
millions of euros to develop a
comforts.
major cultural complex featuring
a building by one of the world’s
most famous architects. That Arles 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 hilltop 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