PROVENCE-ARLES-MUSEUMS-ALYSCAMPS
Jack
The French writer Frederic Mistral used the money he earned by winning
the Literature Nobel Prize (1904) to realize a dream he had since a
long time. The creation in Arles of a Provencal ethnographic museum.
The MUSEE ARLATEN was founded in the early 16th century Hotel de
Laval-Castellane, with a baroque facade middle 17th century on the
place de la Republique. It is an amusing museum. We can be stunned,
bored, interested or find it funny. The first floor is still exactly
as Mistral had arranged it, with the small explaining notes describing
pants and shirts, furniture and table utensils, and all the folkloric
objects he had collected. The halls are guarded by young girls in
traditional costumes. Second floor was arranged in 1940 by the
archeologue Fernand Benoit and we can find some more useful info on
Arles.
We loiter again the narrow streets of Arles, direction Rhone and hope
we will get to the Thermae of Constantin". The ones of you who are not
fanatics of old Roman ruins, keep your money and don't visit these
thermal ruins.
Just a little bit further we see the much more attractive
MUSEE REATTU, named after a painter, Jacques Reattu (1760-1833). His
numerous works are displayed in three rooms which is much! ;-) Luckily
the present director transformed the rest of the museum into a museum
of contemporary art. Great names as Dufy, Leger, Vlaminck, Marquet and
sculptors like Cesar and Ossip Zadkine are on display. The highlight
of the museum is the series of 57 drawings, scattered over three
rooms, realized by Picasso in January 1971 and who gave it, in a very
seldom open-handed mood, as a present to the city. Jacqueline Picasso
offered in 1985 a portrait of his mother the painter executed in 1923.
The second floor is dedicated to photographic art.
Let's return to the car on the place Lamartine and drive to LES
ALYSCAMPS. The name of "Les Alyscamps" so well painted by Van Gogh,
comes from "Elysii Campi" (Champs Elysees). The alley is lined with
tombs lying in the shadow of the cypress trees and leads to a ruined
church, the Saint-Honorat church. What we see today of the so famous
Alyscamps is a sad and rebuilt remainder of what it is supposed to
have been: an immense necropolis where, during 15 centuries, a lot of
Christians chose to be buried. There were thousands of graves along 2
kilometers....Most of the sarcophagus were used later as building
material in churches and musea. And to finish it off completely, a
railway was built in the 19th century which amputated the cemetery.
The more that the immediate surroundings are tarnished by ugly
buildings and factories. Along the only remaining lane, lined with
high poplars, there are some uninteresting, empty graves. So the
"poesie" that this place is supposed to give us, has to come from
ourselves.
Vincent Van Gogh visited the Alyscamps at the right moment, fall of
1888 when the surrounding ugliness was tempered by fog. But the
atmosphere was still there and he painted the famous "Allee de
peupliers aux Alyscamps", of which four versions are known. One of
them is in the Kroller-Muller museum in Otterloo. It's a poetic one,
because Van Gogh didn't paint the ugly factory with its high chimneys.
On other versions he painted them (private collection, Lausanne)
Now, before leaving Arles and before crossing the Pont Nouveau, make a
left and pay a visit to the Faubourg du Cirque and it's new
MUSEE DE L'ARLES ANTIQUE, the provincial luxury-ideal of the
Peruvian-French architect Henri Ciriani. After the first years the
novelty was worn out. In the summer, this not much visited museum is
surrounded by wild campings ( unlawful). The blue plaques glued to the
large facade are loosening. Everything which could have a view on the
river is hidden behind walls and screens. The windows are too high or
too low. The personnel works in small cages, the room of the director
has a balcony that seems build for the sultan of Brunei.
But despite all this misery, the museum is a must. You will discover
works of the antique Arles, an archeological research institute and a
culture wing with an auditorium, lecture halls, libraries and
archives.
There are outstanding reduced models (maquetttes) on display and
finally we will discover a complete panorama of prehistory until the
end of the Roman Empire. The itinerary is superbly well presented .We
are in the daily life of our ancestors or invaders !! You circulate
also between several themes : water, perfume, shipping, commerce,
agriculture. Without forgetting a multitude of sarcophaguses,
statues, objects and mosaics.
In front of the museum, excavations of the circus, built in the same
period as the arena. I don't think they will ever be able to finish
the excavations because there is a modern road just on top of it and
no alternative road has been found yet.
A hint: the most beautiful view on Arles is from the Pont Nouveau, but
if you dare to stop or get out of your car here, it's at your owns
life risk!
Next destination: Aix-en-Provence!
Jack
Bibliography: "A little tour in France" by James Henry, "Aspects of
Provence", by James Pope-Henessy (Penguin Travel Library, London
1988),"The Roman remains of southern France", by James Bromwich (ed.
Routledge, London 1993)
My Paris and Provence posts are open again at
http://home.earthlink.net/~primos
My unwonted Paris and unexpected Paris posts are also visitable
on http://www.worldtable.com/Jack/guides.html