Avignon and Arles

Here are my notes on things I did in Avignon and Arles, from my Moleskine (in case they're any use for Perry):

Avignon
1. The Popes' Palace
Rather more impressive outside than in. Little decoration remains, but two chapels and the pope's bedroom and study still have frescoes. Somewhat less than comfortable when I was there because of all the bored children running about not looking where they're going. You can't blame the children -- there must be few who enjoy large empty stone buildings -- and you can't really blame the parents because the children need to learn the world's not arranged for their amusement.

2. The Pont St-Bénézet
This bridge once went all the way across the Rhône to Villeneuve-lez-Avignon, passing over the Ile-Barthelasset, but now only 4 of 22 piles remain, with two little chapels on top of the other. A nice walk. Again, too many children looking like they're about to run off the edge into the depths of Rhône.

3. The Petit Palais
Excellent, my favourite. Nice and empty when I was there. Its collections have two main themes: Avignon in the middle ages, and early art. It has excellent collections in both. There is lots of good stuff here, not going any later than 1550 or so, which suits me very well. Also there are fantastic views from the top floor.

4. The Petit Train
Quite good. A bit silly, I suppose, but interesting enough. Does a circuit of the town with commentary in French, English, and Spanish.

5. Boat cruise
The beginning is the best bit, with fantastic views of the popes' palace and the bridge. Flags a bit in the middle, when the commentary gives way to 1990s pop.

6. Musée Angladon
Satisfyingly small, and personal because it constitutes the house of two great collectors, themselves artists, who inherited from an even greater collector who had known all the impressionists. Nice stuff. Includes the only Van Gogh of Provence still in Provence.

7. Musée Lapidaire
A large disused church filled with stones of many kinds. Nice to wander round. There are Roman carvings and inscriptions, many local, as well as Greek and Egyptian ones, and some medieval monuments.

8. Musée Calvet
Has one of those fantastic huge Brueghels of a village where about 100 things are going on at once -- a procession, a small play, drunken dancing, livestock, a man pissing against a tree, etc etc. Otherwise a nice collection of art and sculpture -- not too large.

Villeneuve-lez-Avignon
1. Musée Pierre de Luxembourg
A museum containing very little, but with two very nice things (which I was told to go and see by Nigel). A carved Virgin and Child, fourteenth-century. It leans back slightly -- they say because it was carved from one tusk of ivory, but one also sees this leaning back on the hips as one of the features of art at the time. Also, the crowning of the Virgin by Enguerrand Quarton. This is nicely displayed in a whole room to itself, with a bank of seats at a good viewing distance, and cases with the relevant documents. A detailed contract exists, imposing the composition. However there are a few differences, e.g. in the lack of the Hospitality of Abraham. Otherwise the museum mostly contains wet-eyed products of the Counter-Reformation.

2. Collegial Notre-Dame et Cloitre
A large church with a calm and open cloister. Peaceful but not remarkable.

3. Chartreuse Val de Bénédiction
A labyrinthine collection of remains of the charterhouse here, the largest in France. Lots of cloisters; lots of empty rooms with notices explaining their previous use. With lots of other people there, uninspiring; viewed alone it is probably quite different.

I ran out of oomph to visit the Tour Philippe-le-Bel and the Fort-St-Andre. I had see them both from the river. The main square of Villeneuve is a nice place to sit with a coffee.

Arles
Arles is about 20 minutes by train from Avignon.

1. Les Arènes
A huge Roman amphitheatre, probably of the first century A.D., remarkably well preserved. It was used as a fortress in the Middle Ages, when large parts of what remained of the city moved into it, like a raincoat folding into its own pocket. There were more than 200 houses and two chapels in it, with three streets. They took down the third tier at this time, and used the stone to build four watch-towers, and on other town projects. They cleared it in the nineteenth century, and now it is used for bullfights. It makes for a strange building -- part ancient building, part current stadium, with extra seats on scaffolding and stencilled numbers for ticket-allocations.

2. The Theatre
There was a large Roman theatre there, too. I walked past but did not go in.

3. St-Trophime
A fantastic frontal, not very large, but very detailed, with about 60 scenes. Lots of them contain lions -- Samson and David are both there, and there are also deorative lions. It's possible a lion was the symbol of Arles. Very beautiful. Inside, the church is very dark, presumably to protect the Aubusson tapestries of the Life of the Virgin. One of these partially covers a large eleventh- or twelfth-century inscription about St Trophimus. There is a fourth-century Christian funerary monument with carving, and some interesting paintings.

4. The Cloister of St-Trophime
Very beautiful. Probably peaceful when fewer people are there. The ranges are all beautifully carved, though it was hard to see because some were dotted about with conservation tape when I was there. A lovely place. It disappointed me that it was hard to buy pictures of the carvings both of the cloisters and the frontal.

5. The Market and the Van Gogh Place
The market was intense and confusing, and sold things in too large quantities to be much use to me -- or provencal fabrics which I didn't want. I had lunch at the mental hospital where Van Gogh stayed for a while. It has been repainted in the lurid colours of his painting -- an odd thing to do.

6. Musée de l'Arles and la Provence antique
An absolutely baking walk to get there. The museum has some excellent objects, carved heads (one very handsome) and other relicts of the Roman government of the Province. Of particular interest to me were the funerary monuments, which go from pagan to Christian, and start to portray Christian scenes in the same style -- lots of small figures densely packed together. Interesting. The nice ladies at the desk directed me to where I could get a bus back into town.

There are also the Thermes of Constantine, but I have a long-standing dislike of hypocausts so I didn't go.