Walking in the lovely Alpilles
~ from Tarascon to Saint-Rémy de provence, Glanum, les-Baux-de-provence, Fontvielle and Arles.
A little over a week ago I took a few days off from working on my thesis in order to visit parts of the Alpilles on foot. It´s nearly ten years since the bicycle and I passed by this lovely regional park, a day I remember as being one of the most beautiful on that trip. This time though, it was a short train ride to Tarascon, perhaps best known for le Château de roi René, which stands gloriously by the river Rhône. Upon entering the courtyard and the museum store, it turned out that visits were free of charge for archaeology students, and the kind receptionists even offered to store my backpack while visiting. The 15th century fortress was magical; so many rooms, gorgeous vaults and windows, swirling, narrow stairs, a wonderful view from the terrace, and so many joyful visitors, half of them school children. From there followed a couple of hours walk pass numerous Más with their oliverons filled with poppies, to Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, continuing south up the hill to see the Mausoleum and Arc of Glanum before nightfall.
If you travel to Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, it´s difficult to miss everything fantastic surrounding Van Gogh. Up on the hills, right opposite les Antiques of Glanum lies the beautiful Monastère Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, where Vincent admitted himself between 1889-1890. Parts of the monastery is currently a museum for remembering his stay, and equally educational of how a psychiatric hospitalization looked like around the turn of the last century. Around the hills you may also follow a path where several of his works were painted. The monastery still holds a clinic, where they, as part of the treatment offer art therapy.
Above is a view of the triumphal arch and the mausoleum, an ensemble known as “les Antiques” of the roman city Glanum, constructed around 10 B.C. Underneath, to the left are two photographs taken at exactly the same location in early August 2012. It was pure joy to be back. Below are some photographs from Saint-Rémy de provence, with the weathered but gorgeous vaults of its´ cathedral.
After leaving Glanum around sunset, I walked up and down the hills of les alpilles, watching the silhouettes of the olive trees lit by the moon. I tried, without much luck to sleep beneath one of the trees, and the following morning continued to the wonderful medieval village les-Baux-de-provence. After a friendly talk with the woman working in the store with the luxurious, local olive oil, I walked swiftly downhills to the village Fontvielle in order to make it before the grocery stores closed. The kind keeper of the small store by the square let everyone who could pay in cash finish their dinner shopping, even though he had closed the cashier for the evening.
After having spent the night in a closed camping car park, had tea and washed up in a cosy café in the central village, I walked slightly south to re-visit les Aqueducs romains de Barbegal. Among all lovely, fellow visitors was an archaeologist, who together with his colleagues was trying to map the entire Roman aqueduct system to Arles, most of which is situated underground. After having talked for a long time, shown his notebooks and pointed to the remains of the previous roman temple, he expressed his feelings of finding Etruscan monetary. “The images of the coins are often very sensual", he said in french. “Excuse me for the expression, but sometimes it almost feels like making love to the material”. After we said our goodbyes, I thought to myself that this must be the highest form of passion for archaeology.
The next morning, I continued to Arles. As it was the first of May, I was curious to see whether there were celebrations and manifestations in town. The young ladies sitting by the fountain were just lovely. After having asked permission to take their photograph and thanked them, they all said in ensemble “De rien!”.
After walking around the crowded central town for a few hours and looking for a place to recharge my phone, I went inside la Mairie to see whether there was any wall with a plug. And so it happened that the remainder of the afternoon was spent together with the town hall´s handsome security guard, before taking the last train back to Montpellier.
