ARLES, France (dpa) – “Here is a night painting without any black,” Vincent van Gogh wrote to his sister Wilhelmine in 1888. “Nothing but beautiful blues, violets and greens.”
The painting, “Cafe Terrace at Night”, was one of more than 200 the great Dutch artist produced during his productive, and turbulent, 13-month stay in the southern French city of Arles.It was in Arles that van Gogh discovered the clear, distinctive light and vivid colours of the Provence and found a landscape he once described as – Japan.“I have no need of Japanese decorations here,” van Gogh said in another letter to Wilhelmine, “because I always tell myself that here I am in Japan. And I therefore have only to open my eyes and paint whatever is before me to get the effect.”The cafe van Gogh painted at night now bears his name, as does the building which housed the hospital that treated him after a nervous breakdown during which he cut off his right ear and presented it to a prostitute in a local brothel he frequented.The Cafe Van Gogh is a popular tourist destination on the lively Place du Forum, and the Espace Van Gogh houses several galleries, the city’s archives and a school for literary translators.But there is more, much more, to Arles than the many traces of its most celebrated guest.A city of just over 50,000 inhabitants, its history dates back more than 3,000 years, and it has left its traces too – such as the remnants of what was once the most famous burial ground in the western world, the Alyscamps.Created by the Greeks and expanded by the Romans, the site was ultimately extended by the city’s Christian rulers from the 4th century on until it grew to be as large as the city itself.A total of 19 churches and chapels were built there. Those who lived upstream of the city would float their dead down the Rhone river to be collected by grave diggers for burial in the Alyscamps.After centuries of pillage and neglect, all that remains today of the once imposing necropolis is a wide, tree-lined lane of sarcophagi.Arles also contains the ruins of a once-impressive Roman amphitheatre that measured 102 metres in diametre and of a palace, built under the reign of Constantine, that housed an elaborate system of thermal baths.But the most city’s most impressive historical monument is an arena built by the Romans between the first and second centuries after Christ and large enough to hold up to 25,000 spectators come to watch gladiators fight to the death.Standing on its top tier, the visitor has a breathtaking view of the broad sweep of the Rhone river, the Camargue flatlands to the south and the distant Alpilles mountain range.Today, the arena serves as the venue for another life-and-death battle, that between man and bull.At Easter and in September, Arles hosts two grand ferias, or street festivals, to accompany a programme of corridas held in the arena featuring the best toreros from Spain and France.Twice a day, after the corrida, bulls are run down Arles’ main avenue surrounded by a phalanx of compact white horses from the Camargue, re-enacting the manner in which bulls were once rounded up and brought to the arena for the corrida.The feria is accompanied by music in the streets, huge pans of paella cooking on streetcorners, stands serving the popular anise-flavoured drink pastis – and vast crowds partying until early morning.The bullfight culture is responsible for the fact that Arles’ bistros often go by the Spanish name, bodega, and that bull meat is an important part of the local cuisine, used in spicy sausages and tasty stews.And for anyone wishing to know the ultimate fate of bulls killed in the arena, a week after the Easter feria a local butcher displayed a homemade sign in his window declaring: “For sale – Meat from bulls of the corrida”.Even without the Romans and van Gogh, Arles has more than enough charm and visual appeal.It is a city of outdoor cafes, lively, tree-shaded squares and, above all, narrow, twisting streets of two- and three-storey houses with pastel-coloured wooden shutters and doors.“Arles is a real labyrinth,” a native Arlesienne told a pair of bewildered tourists looking for their hotel. “It’s just small streets leading to other small streets.”The best time to visit the city is between April and October, when days are bright with the light that dazzled van Gogh and the cafe terraces are warmed by the generous Provencal sun.But Arles is a difficult city to forget at any time of year – even for those who spend their lives there.“I call Arles a lover-city,” said Arles-born Erick Vedel, who runs a cooking school here. “It’s just like living with a lover. Whenever you leave her, all you think about is coming back.”
