The Provence region of southern France is one of the most popular tourist areas in france.
Historically, Provence has attracted countless artists and inspired countless people.
Among them, the most famous, the most tragic, and the most legendary is Van Gogh.
Arles, 40 km south of Avignon, is Van Gogh's last residence.
Here, Van Gogh's painting style faded into a butterfly, becoming a "Van Gogh" that shocked the world.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Arles</h1>
In the last three years of Van Gogh's life, he lived in Arles.
Arles became a retired military settlement city under the roman empire of Julius Caesar, known as the "Little Rome of the Gauls", and later became an important religious center in the early days of Christian development.
Then, thanks to Van Gogh's blessing, Arles had these two important shining points in history, and it was inevitable that it would become one of the most well-known cities in Southern France.
Tourists who come to Arles for sightseeing are guided by a sentence: "Van Gogh to the left, Caesar to the right".
This rather coded instruction is interpreted as saying that, starting from the Republic Square in the center of the town, look for Van Gogh to the left, and look for the roman ruins to the right.
In this small town full of traces of ancient Roman times, you can also meet Van Gogh, which is also a rather unique stop in French tourism.
The Arles Arena is the most prominent landmark in the small town of Arles and can be seen from anywhere in the city.
Because the arena was built in Roman times, it is very similar to the Colosseum in Rome, but on a slightly smaller scale.
Even so, the 136-meter-long and 107-meter-wide circular arena could accommodate more than 26,000 spectators.
Walking around the arena, you can see several commentary boards about artists who have created historical masterpieces in the neighborhood.
Continue to the Van Gogh Sanatorium, you will definitely pass by, the Van Gogh Café.
Van Gogh used this as a model for the painting "Night Cafe".
To this day, it still retains the same appearance as the paintings of that year, and many fans who make pilgrimages to Arles also regard this place as the most important stop on the "Van Gogh Road" in Arles.
Although many tourists report that the coffee here is not outstanding, it does not prevent you from spending a few euros to sit in a daze facing the small square. French cafes have a bizarre aura, the guests sitting on the coffee seats, and the pedestrians, are completely two characters in time and space, and the sense of estrangement comes from this cup of coffee on the table.
In front of the Church of St. Tropheem in the city center, we were attracted by a selling entertainer.
He used an ancient music player, by shaking the handle, the note paper with holes passed through the ancient machine in front of him, playing music, the principle is very similar to the music box.
The music emitted by the machine is only accompaniment, and the seller also sings opera fragments with the music. Apparently, he had several sheet music books and would play different pieces according to the atmosphere of the scene.
We were captivated by this rare way of playing and missed the church behind him.
In 1981, the Church of St. Tropheem was inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List, along with the city's hippodrome, ancient theater and other roman ruins.
The Van Gogh Sanatorium is our final pilgrimage site in Arles.
Here, Van Gogh spent the time in 1988 after the break with Gauguin's friendship.
Here, Van Gogh created The Garden in the Arles Hospital, which depicts the garden in the hospital's atrium at that time.
At present, tourists can only visit the atrium garden enclosed by this two-story square building.
In the corner in front of the garden, a replica of this masterpiece is placed. Like the landscape in the painting, the flowers in the courtyard are clustered one by one, retaining the vitality that is unique to the southern French sun.
However, I still mind that it is too noisy because of the tourists. Leave here, set off for the next stop, and continue to follow in Van Gogh's footsteps in southern France.
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the Monastery of Montmartre</h1>
The monastery is situated between Arles and Saint-Rémy and gave us great surprises.
In the Middle Ages, the role of monasteries was very important.
As the elite of Christianity, the monks are not only role models for achieving salvation, but also live a rigorous spiritual life, hoping to bring salvation to society as a whole through prayer and ceremonies.
Monasteries were generally built in places where the people of the source gathered, and the monks lived an otherworldly life of asceticism.
Known as the "Vestibule of Heaven," everyday life is devoted to ceremonies.
Priests and bishops have a greater influence in the secular world than monks who are isolated from the secular world.
The Bishop is in charge of the diocese, the supreme power respected by all the clergy, the educator of all the clergy, and the judge of the great sins.
However, the monastery was not unrelated to the secular, in fact, the monastery itself was a great lord, controlling the land and living off the heavy labour of the peasants within its control.
The connection between the Montmartre Monastery and Van Gogh is reflected in Van Gogh's letter to his brother.
In his letter, Van Gogh described the hill and the monastery on it several times.
His famous works "Harvest" and "The Sunset of Montmartre" are also painted here.
The sunset described in Van Gogh's letter goes like this: "One evening in Montmartre, I saw a red sunset, and the sunset fell on the trunks and leaves of the pine trees jutting out of the rocks, staining the trees and leaves with a fire-like orange, and the rest of the pine trees towered farther away, where Prussian blue set off the soft blue-green sky, like Monet's painting, which was very beautiful."
The white sand under the trees and the layers of white rocks shimmered with a little blue light. I really want to integrate the sketches that I gave you earlier and draw a panorama.
The scenery is so wide that it doesn't fade into gray, and even at the farthest reaches of the horizon, it's green, and the lines of the mountains are blue. ”
Sure enough, in the eyes of a talented painter, the colors of the world are also different from ordinary people.
"The Sunset of Montmartre"
Harvest
This monastery, obviously not a "famous" attraction, the whole building in addition to us, there are only 3 or 4 pairs of European and American tourists. Everyone is scattered in an intricate architectural structure, undisturbed by each other.
The Monastery of Montmartre is large in its entire building area, and several buildings of different sizes were built mainly to accommodate about 50 to 80 monks.
In addition to the main building, the monastery, there are also chapels and the more common cloister structures in the south. The exposed stone bricks, and the unique light and shadow of southern France, are perfect for slow exploration and slow photography.
tumulus
The original origin of the medieval monastery was actually a cemetery.
The ruins of the tomb of the Monastery of Montmartre are on the hillside outside the Chapel of the Holy Cross, and now only a regular rectangular groove is left, which can faintly find traces of the existence of monks hundreds of years ago.
Church of Our Lady
It is an annex to the monastery and the main church.
It perfectly integrates the architectural styles of ancient Rome and Provence into the 16-meter-high vault of the nave: a simple cross structure shelters the land with a sacred gesture, silently listening to the prayers of the pilgrims who come and go.
Inner courtyard
The inner courtyard of the monastery is surrounded by four cloisters, southeast, northwest and southeast, forming a rectangular "patio".
The beautiful cloister light and shadow is the signature of the medieval monastery.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Saint-Rémy</h1>
The southern French town of Saint-Rémy, just 20km from Avignon, is a fairly mini, quiet town.
A circle along the outskirts of the town is a pedestrian driveway lined with beautiful three-storey cream-coloured houses, one floor of which is home to a variety of exquisite shops and restaurants.
Walking down the path between the three-storey buildings into the town, you'll encounter more handicraft shops, cheese shops, coffee shops.
Saint-Rémy, also known as the craft town, although miniature, has the typical characteristics of many French small towns, and is the epitome of the most humanistic and artistic scenery in the province of Provence.
It is here that the silence, tranquility, makes van Gogh, who has bipolar disorder, quiet down.
The Saint-Rémy Psychiatric Hospital, located on the outskirts of Saint-Rémy, was where Van Gogh lived for one year before his death.
As soon as you enter the courtyard door, you will see many paintings of Van Gogh hanging on the low walls on both sides of the road, and further on, there is a bronze statue of Van Gogh holding a sunflower.
It still retains the appearance of Van Gogh's room and treatment room, although it looks very dilapidated and full of heart-wrenching pessimism, but the surrounding scenery is very beautiful.
The scenery in this neighborhood was called "the most solemn view he has ever seen in his career".
Olive trees, nurseries, cypress trees, clouds, suns, laborers, red poppies, sanatoriums and gardens, etc., were brought together by Van Gogh's delicate and vivid observations, resulting in a rich series of works in the last year of his life.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > play guide</h1>
Arles Arena Arènes d'Arles
地址:1 Rond-point des Arènes, 13200 Arles, France
Opening hours: May to September 9:00-18:30; March, April and October 9:00-17:30; November to February 10:00-16:30. Closed on the second weekend of September, Easter weekend, 1 January, 1 May, 1 November and 25 December.
Entrance fee: 9 euros / person including two attractions (Arena and Opera House)
【Cafe Van Gogh】
地址:Rue du 4 Septembre Arles, France
Website: restaurant-cafe-van-gogh.com
Church of St. Tophim Église Saint-Trophime
地址:6 Place de la République, 13200 Arles, France
URL: paroisse-arles.com
【Van Gogh Sanatorium L'espace Van Gogh】
地址:Place Félix Rey 13200 Arles, France
Abbaye de Montmajour
地址: D17, route de Fontvieille, 13200, Arles, France
Opening hours: 10:00 am - 6:30 pm
Closed on Mondays
Entrance fees: 6 euros for adults
Nursing Home Saint Paul
地址:off D5 direction Les Baux | Next to Glanum, 13210 Saint-Remy-de-Provence, France
Tickets: None