Arles 2002

Okay, Sunday in Provence, in Springtime. We hop in the car and drive the short drive from Avignon to Arles. We're getting the hang of this ... which is to say we didn't get lost and my parking karma kicked in leading us to free on-street parking near the train station. Arles was a thriving port in Roman times, essentially disappeared in the 18th century and has made a comeback of sorts in modern times. In one sense, it's just a small French town. You may recall that Van Gogh lived here for a couple of years around 1888 and painted what he saw. What he saw then is gone of course but it makes a nice historical footnote. Arles has a neat roman coliseum, a cool cloister, a few very nice museums. We enjoyed a morning here in April 2002.

Standing atop the coliseum, looking toward the Rhone River.
I tilt the camera downward and here is small sidewalk cafe just at the foot of the colliseum.
This is a very cool coliseum. Besides being well preserved, it's still in use today. We missed the bullfights to be held here by only a couple of weeks. And while we were there, it was being set up for a midieval festival.
I like the colors and contrast of this one very much.
A short walk toward the river brings us to the Cloister St. Trophime. The building is in the classic cloister style ...

... but inside, this is a beautiful contemplative place ...
... with statues of saints to "help" you contemplate. And check out the Gallic nose on this guy.
... and some very nice stained glass ...
... windows.