It was time to say goodbye to Camping Municipal de Romains. It has been a nice campsite in a pretty village, but as I said yesterday, we have really exhausted its charms. When I went to pay at reception, the usually stern faced woman, suddenly seemed much happier. Coincidence I am sure.
Arles is only 9 miles from the campsite, but the roads in this part of Provence are very narrow, and the villages have a 19 mph speed limit (30 kph), so it took the best part of 30 minutes to traverse the dry and dusty land to the city.
You will not be surprised to learn that our first stop was at LIDL. We have stayed for seven nights on Camping Municipal de Romains, which is our longest stop in one place ever in Basil, and so our cupboards were looking a bit bare. Sarah found a bargain dry, sparkling wine for €2.29, which will be sampled tonight to see whether a few bottles might find their way into Basil’s capacious garage for the journey home.
Having completed our shopping we made our way to the dedicated motorhome parking area on the banks of the River Rhone, just a twenty minute walk from the centre.
Typical House – Arles
Arles is famous primarily for two things. Firstly it was a great Roman city, being the place from which Julius Caesar launched his bid for absolute power. Subsequently Arles became the Roman capital of France and Britain. Secondly, poor old Vincent van Gogh had a, to say the least, unhappy time here while painting many of his iconic works, which culminated in him cutting off part of his ear in one of Arles’ hotels.
Coliseum
Arles no longer has a single Van Gogh to show its visitors, but it does retain quite a bit of Roman architecture. The highlight of Roman Arles is undoubtedly the extremely complete coliseum, which was, in Roman times, the largest arena in France and Britain. Today it rather unpleasantly still hosts bull fights, amongst other things.
Roman Theatre
In addition to the coliseum there is still a substantial amount of a Roman theatre intact and a small part of some Roman baths.
Constantine’s Baths
It always amazes me that the quality of Roman building is such that substantial parts of their structures still stand after two thousand years. Some of the brick work we have seen on this trip (Bulgaria hang your head, but you’re not alone) will be lucky to be standing in 20 years let alone 2000!
Place de la République
Apart from the Roman architecture, Arles has a pleasant small town feel. There are one or two good medieval buildings, such as the Cathedral, which is almost anonymous in the large Place de la Republique, but otherwise it is nice to wander amongst the pedestrianised centre full of typical southern French houses. Sarah felt the place looked a bit run down, I’d prefer to think of it as shabby chic!
Arles street
After completing a fairly quick tour of Arles we were off to our next campsite. It is called Huttopia Fontvieille (43.723808, 4.718820). It is €15 a night on an ACSI card. It is a smallish site in a pine wood on the edge of the village of Fontvieille. It is fairly empty at this time of year but amazingly their swimming pool is still open and heated!
The village looks bigger than the one we just left and it does not appear quite so touristy, so, like in Arles, the prices may be a little more affordable.