Old Things and Van Gough

3 weekends ago was field-trip -weekend.  On Friday we went to the Luberon (which you have already seen) and on Saturday my archeology class took a trip to Glanum and the city of Arles to look at old things.  You can see and educate yourself about the old things we saw below.  This past weekend I had another excursion to the city of Arles to look at pretty much the same stuff, so I decided to combine pictures from the 2.  If you’re wondering why some pictures are brilliantly sunny, while others look like the gloomiest day of your life, it’s because they were taken on two different days.  The pictures are organized by subject, not chronologically, so don’t get confused!

Arles is a really cool little city with a lot of history.  It’s quite pretty and you can see some of the Palette of Provence that I talked about in my last post as well.  Van Gogh also contributed to the fame of Arles by spending about a year here.  Glanum is a small town with spectacular Greek and Roman ruins, near Arles.  Don’t take my word for it though, check out the captions and pictures.

Peach tree field on the way to Glanum

This is a Roman Triumphal Arch, which was built to remind the people of Glanum of the power of the Romans. People would have to pass under the arch everyday and be reminded the might and the goodness of Rome.

There are 4 reliefs like this on the arch. This is the only one that doesn’t depict people in chains.

The relief is of Rome (symbolized by a woman) sitting on a pile of weapons, and I believe she is holding the man’s chain.

This is a memorial to 3 men who were influential in getting Roman citizenship for the people of Glanum. Roman citizenship was a big deal in those times because it meant that you had rights and could not be treated like a slave.

Meet Guillaume (we call our profs by their first names here, which is super weird to me), my archeology professor. He’s my favorite professor, and he is French. He’s super quirky and since my class is in english, everything is ten times funnier because sometime things don’t translate quite right. Guillaume is an archeologist with 2 Phds, and he loves what he teaches. What more could you ask?

The asylum where Van Gogh spent some time, and painted this picture, is quite close to Glanum. My professor said he’s not a big fan of Van Gogh. After saying that, he promptly proceeded to trip over a speed bump and tear his knee (which he is having surgery on this week). Now he really doesn’t like Van Gogh.

The ruins of Glanum – originally a Celto-Ligurian settlement, became Greek under the influence of Hellenization, then Roman. You can see evidence/layers of all 3 civilizations as you walk around.

All of the ruins of Glanum

Even though I can’t read Latin, I can read the name Hercules on these votive offerings. Hercules was the patron god of warriors.

This spring used to be considered/used as a healing spring for people to bathe in.

The Greek well sits under the layer of Roman ruins. You literally have to walk under the Roman forum to get to it.

This is what the Roman Glanum used to look like.

We hit up the markets for lunch and ended up with a bag of croissants, comte cheese, and olive spread. Left to right – Zoe, Kayla, Chevy, Catherine

On the right, the arena, on the left, the town – I think it’s really interesting in Arles how the town surrounding the arena is so lived in. In Rome, the Colosseum stands by itself, apart from shops and other buildings.

The arena/amphitheater of Arles – Arena comes from the Latin word for sand, because the floor of the amphitheater’s stage was covered with sand which could be quickly added to or cleaned off and replenished after a show. This was super necessary because, as you can imagine, dead men and animals don’t smell very good.

Most of the amphitheater is standing today, except for the top layer. The amphitheater was used as a fortified village within a village, before it was cleaned out to look like this. Mostly used for bull fights now, the arena is impressive, but I have to confess I was a little underwhlemed after having seen the Colosseum in Rome.

The amphitheater from the lower level of seats

We happened to be in the amphitheater at the same time as a field trip of middle schoolers. We watched them do some kind of exercise where they had to hold a small weight in each hand, swing their arms and jump, sort of like a standing long jump. My class collectively agreed that 1. French students don’t seem to be quite as competitive as Americans and 2. we wanted to try.

The view from the top of the one of the towers of the amphitheater

The city of Arles and the Rhone River.

The side of what used to be the theater complex

Here’s what’s left of the Roman theater – the acoustics are still awesome and the theater is still used today for concerts and various other shows and productions.

See those 2 columns stil standing behind the stage? There used to be 2 additional layers of columns above those, meaning that those columns represent only 1/3 of the original height of the wall. This wall was quite fancy and was filled with Roman statues.

Stone “graveyard” at the Roman theater – all of these stones were a part of the theater during Roman times. Guillaume, my prof, wants one of them as a coffee table.

See the band across the rock (vertically) with the oval, 3 lines, oval, 3 lines, etc. pattern? The oval symbolizes birth and the 3 lines represent death. Together, the pattern represents eternity, or immortality.

An Egyptian obelisk, originally brought by the Romans as the centerpiece of their Circus Maximus (chariot race course) here in Arles.

Lead pipes used by the Romans – I thought it was cool that we actually have pipes used by them.

This is the traditional Arlesian costume for women.

A fancy hotel across from the political center of Arles

The Rhone River – apparently there are huge 6-8 fish in this river that are, according to my Myth and Media professor, “mostly mouth.” Word to the wise, no swimming.

Here’s my Myth and Media professor, Charles, who lives half the year in Provence and half in New York, teaching film at NYU. He’s rocking some truly awesome sunglasses. I want a pair.

The old Roman baths.

This is where prisoners during WWII were kept by the Nazis before they were deported to death camps. I used my phone flashlight to peak inside the now cleaning closets. There’s not a lot of room in those things.

The Lion of Arles, the city’s symbol.

Hotel de Ville – under here is a crypt that no one really knows the purpose of. My class went down to explore it.

St. Trophime church in Arles

Look carefully at the carvings. The ones on the right are the condemned, chained sinners, with flames licking their legs. The ones on the left are the saints. The four creatures surrounding Christ represent the 4 gospels.

We explored the cloister (courtyard garden) of the church and each of the hallways around it are in a different architectural style. This one is Gothic because of the high arches in the ceiling.

Notice how the beast is eating the sinful man

Also notice here how 3-D the sculptures are, especially the one of Jesus.

The Hall where the priests and nuns would eat.

This is a much more classical style hallway. Notice the Corinthian capitols.

The cloister from above

Charles also took us to the old hospital in Arles. There’s a beautiful courtyard garden because the thought back then was that it was good for patients to be able to walk outside. I still think that’s a good idea, depending on the condition of the patient, of course.

This is a very nice hotel in Arles, called a very strange name. You’ll also notice that part of the Roman forum (marketplace) is now embedded in the wall of the hotel. As you would assume, this is where the Roman forum used to be.

In case you’re like me and don’t know much about art or artists, let me give you a little background on Van Gogh. He moved from Paris to Arles for about a year in hopes of stimulating his creativity. Moving to Provence (the region) did the trick and he painted tons and tons of pictures down here, assisted by the famous “light” of Provence. This is the cafe he frequented and painted. It’s now a bit of a tourist trap but it’s still a cool piece of art history

During my second trip to Arles with Charles, we actually went to Van Gough’s cafe, much to my wallet’s dismay. My professor told us the cheapest thing to get usually was a pastis – a licorice flavored alcoholic drink that is one of THE drinks of Provence that you CANNOT come here and not try. I utterly despise licorice flavored things, so I hadn’t tried it yet. I decided to be adventurous and though I’m glad I tried it, I must tell you that this is about as far as I got and that I shall never, ever, drink as pastis ever again.

• April 8, 2013
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