Happy Easter (or, "Joyeux Paques" here in France)!
We checked out of our perfect little Avignon guesthouse- the proprietor even had chocolate bunnies for us- and caught the 10am train twenty minutes south to Arles. Imagine my glee when I discovered the Easter Bunny had left me a big French chocolate egg on the train (note: Easter Bunny may also be Matt. I'm not entirely certain). Wheee!!!
We had expected a sleepy Easter weekend, but in Arles, Easter is the biggest festival time of the year. And not just any festival; it is their bullfighting festival, the Feria. Seriously. Bulls run in the streets, bullfights happen around the clock at the ancient Roman amphitheater, restaurants sell paella and sangria, and everyone wears black and white striped shirts with red bandannas,
with those white Panama-like hats. To me, it feels like St. Patrick's Day in the USA, when everyone spends a day pretending to be Irish, then everything goes back to normal on March 18. Here, it is bizarre to see French people pretending to be Spanish. The world is weird.
(note: I will not be blogging or sharing photographs of the running of the bulls. To me, this is a brutal and inhumane way to treat animals, and frankly when I hear of a goring, I'm rooting for the bull.)
Arles is famous for its Spanish influence, but it has one very special claim to fame: It was to here, in 1888, that Vincent van Gogh moved to create his ill-fated artists' colony. He fled Paris with images of painting lush countryside canvases alongside his Parisian artist colleagues, including Jean Paul Gauguin, Toulouse-Latrec, and Camille Pissaro. Unfortunately, only Gauguin accepted his offer; he subsequently hated the "little yellow house" in Arles, and van Gogh himself, so much that they fought continuously, and Gauguin left after a few months. During their final fight, van Gogh infamously cut off his own ear.
Vincent van Gogh stayed in a hospital in Arles while his ear healed, and then soon after committed himself to a mental hospital in nearby St Remy-de-Provence. He committed suicide a few months later at 37. Fun fact (because isn't that whole story fun?): van Gogh only sold one painting in his entire lifetime, and that was to a friend's wife. He was an utter failure until his sister-in-law began to sell his paintings, and his story, after his death. Ironically (for him, anyway) he's now considered the most famous painter of all time.
Despite all that unhappiness and manic depression (or perhaps because of it), van Gogh was extremely prolific when he was in Arles- many of his masterpieces were created here. And since his paintings depicted Arles landscapes, the city of Arles has marked each location where an artwork was created with a monument showing the corresponding painting. It's pretty remarkable. So today, in between bulls running through the streets, we followed in the footsteps of Vincent van Gogh.
We began our walk with "Cafe At Night (Cafe ce Soir)". This painting is pretty important to us, since it was the inspiration for our Kirkland catering company Starry Nights. So we were excited to visit the actual cafe that inspired van Gogh's painting, and see the view for ourselves. Luckily, after nearly 150 years, that cafe is still there, with the same view that van Gogh painted in 1888.
We then continued on to see the place where van Gogh's rented "Little Yellow House" used to be. This is the house he rented, where he envisioned his ill-fated artists' colony. The house stood until World War II, until those fucking Nazis bombed it. But the spot is still marked with van Gogh's famous painting of the house itself.
We then visited the hospital where Van Gogh stayed after his ear mutilation. This hospital was unused until the 1980s, when the Vincent van Gogh Association acquired it. Unlike what you'd expect in the US or the UK, the place retains a quiet calm, filled with flowers and bright colors.The gift shop is unobtrusive, and people come here just to sit and enjoy the loveliness of the garden in the sunshine. You can actually see how van Gogh was inspired to paint his famous garden here. I loved this beautiful little space so much that I hated to leave.
We cracked a bottle of Provencal rose and sat in the Jardin d'Ete, which was the site of another famous van Gogh painting. We then followed the Arles city's directions to a small bridge over the Rhone, where we enjoyed the remains of the bottle in the sunshine, at yet another painting site. Note that neither of us, including the half of us with a BFA degree, knew of these two paintings before today. But still! Provencal wine in the sunshine!
We had a somewhat forgettable dinner; however, due to the Feria festival, the restaurateurs could be excused for phoning it in, but I still consider this a cardinal French sin. One should not serve me a monocolor dish in France that makes its components indistinguishable from one another. I'm just saying, if you serve me a stew containing potatoes and fish, I should be able to tell which is which without poking at it with my fork. But at least the nougat ice cream was good, though I'm still not entirely certain of what "nougat" is beyond a marshmallow-like dessert that sticks to my teeth.
After dinner, we strolled to the riverside where van Gogh painted one of his masterpieces "A Starry Night On the Rhone" (not to be confused with the more famous "A Starry Night," which was painted at his asylum in St Remy-de-Provence before his suicide). The spot now has a lot of light pollution from streetlights and bateaux (tourist boats), but it was not difficult to see the nighttime beauty that inspired van Gogh.
That was our Easter in Provence. I hope you had a crackin' one.
2025-02-10