Before leaving Italy we took the plunge and booked our ferry crossing back to the UK. With a date now set we worked backwards to plan our last month in Europe. Paris was a must, so my job was to find a few places to visit enroute, and of course to work out how to avoid as many of those road tolls as possible. We settled on three stopovers, each for two nights. The first of these was Arles, in Provence, a 3-hour drive from our campsite on the Cote d’Azur.
Arles
Arles lies on the Rhone River and is famous for inspiring some of Van Gogh’s most celebrated paintings. He lived in Arles for over a year and painted prolifically while there. Arles is also renowned for its Roman history and its Roman ruins are World Heritage listed. It’s not a big place with a population of just over 50,000. Arles surprised us. It didn’t look like much as we cycled in from the campsite – a flat, ordinary, semi-rural town with lots of car yards, supermarkets and a MacDonald’s. But, in the very centre was a wonderfully well preserved historic town with an incredible 2-tiered Roman amphitheatre as the centrepiece. This impressive theatre is similar in style to the Colosseum in Rome and was built 2,000 years ago, holding more than 20,000 spectators. It is still used for concerts and French bullfighting, which I’m told isn’t as brutal as the Spanish version and doesn’t result in the bull being killed. The medieval town was built around the amphitheatre and the streets and buildings follow its curves, expanding out like ripples. Next to the amphitheatre is another Roman theatre, this one built a century earlier and in the same style as Greek theatres. It is mostly in ruins and is now an archaeological museum. A short walk away, near the banks of the Rhône River, are the Thermes de Constantin, or Roman baths dating from the 4th century. And like all Roman cities there was a Forum in Arles, though little of it remains today apart from two Corinthian columns that are now incorporated into the wall of the Hotel du Forum, where a sign saying Place du Forum marks the spot.
Where the Forum was is now a square filled with restaurants including the famous café that features in Van Gogh’s painting “Café Terrace at Night”. It is now aptly called Van Gogh Café, but is still bright yellow as it is in his painting. After taking a photo of the café we walked all through the streets of the old town trying to find the Fondation Vincent van Gogh where exhibitions of his work and of artists influenced by him are displayed. All signs seemed to point to it, but we were sent around in circles and back again. Finally, we found it, and it was closed until April 20th. Never mind, we had visited the Van Gogh gallery in Amsterdam at the start of our trip and wandering through the streets of Arles, seeing buildings and scenes he had painted was enough, and we still had one place to see – Espace Van Gogh. This was the hospital where Van Gogh had his ear stitched back on after he cut it off, and where he was later locked up after suffering a severe mental breakdown. The flower-filled courtyard is the subject of two of his paintings. It’s now an area for working artists and hosts exhibitions and workshops. We wandered around the courtyard and admired the gardens brimming with spring colour.
Van Gogh’s connection to Arles has had a lasting effect and now many artists reside here. All through the old town are galleries and artisan boutiques and browsing through them was a lovely way to spend a warm Saturday afternoon. Taken by the artistic mood of the place Andrew splashed out on a very dapper light blue panama hat.
Le Puy
Our next stopover was Le Puy-en-Velay. This town was a bit out the way but was well worth the long slow drive through the mountains of the vast Cevennes National Park to get there.
Le Puy-en-Velay lies in a basin at an altitude of 2,000 feet, not far from the Loire River. Despite being high, the pass we drove over to get there was higher and the road into Le Puy was all downhill. As we came down the slope we looked across a wide valley where the new town sprawls and towards the old town sitting on a volcanic mound in the middle with two remarkable rocky pinnacles next to it; one with a chapel perched on the top, the other with an enormous deep-salmon coloured statue of Mary and Jesus.
Our campsite was directly below the 85-metre rock needle where St-Michel d’Aiguilhe chapel is perched and we didn’t delay in climbing to the top to see it. The labour that must have gone into building this incredible chapel is mind-blowing. Bishop of Le-Put was the guy who, back in the 10th century, pointed to the top of that sheer rock and said: “Yes, that’s the ideal place for the new church to celebrate my return from pilgrimage.” I’m sure a few people looked sideways at the suggestion, and he was probably not the most popular among those left to cart the rocks to the top. The 268 steps to get to the chapel are carved into the cliff-face, the steepness of the climb highlighted by the prominently placed defibrillator at the top. The chapel is beautiful, intimate and peaceful, and there are some impressive frescoes and lovely stained-glass windows.
We got to the bottom and the woman in the ticket office told us not to go without seeing the lentil exhibition. Le Puy-en-Velay is also famous for the green lentils grown in the area and driving through the farmland outside the town there were plenty of signs proudly promoting lentils using a carton lentil-man. This carton lentil-man reappeared in the museum to tell us about the process of growing, drying and exporting lentils. I had heard of, and eaten, Le Puy lentils but had never put any thought into where they were from. Now we know.
All through Spain, in Portugal and in southern France we have come across paths marked with the distinct yellow scallop shell, all leading to Santiago de Compostela. There are many ways there and each is an important pilgrimage route. Le Puy is the gateway to the Santiago de Compostela French Way pilgrimage trail. This is where the hardiest of the pilgrims start their journey to Santiago de Compostela – 1600 kilometres away! Le Puy is a very religiously significant place and in the centre of the historic town is the 12th-century Romanesque Notre Dame Cathedral, the starting point for the long pilgrimage path, and each morning there is a blessing for those about to set off on the journey. It’s a lovely cathedral and stands at the top of a long and broad flight of stairs. At the foot of the stairs are cafes and lace shops, another thing Le Puy is famous for.
Looking over the town from atop another rocky volcanic outcrop is that enormous statue of the Virgin Mary. This is the 132-metre high Corneille Rock and the next morning we climbed to the top to see this colossal statue of Notre-Dame-de-France up close. The 16-metre high salmon-pink statue was erected in 1860 and was made using metal obtained from hundreds of cannons that had been seized during the Crimean war. It’s hollow and there are stairs up the middle with a trap door that opens at the top and you can look out over Le Puy from the middle of Mary’s headpiece of gold stars. If you think about it too much you’d call it garish and tacky, but we decided to settle on “odd”, and leave it at that.
On our second and last evening in Le Puy we were in the van, it had finished raining heavily and the sun was trying to push through the dark clouds for one final showing before it set. Suddenly the chapel on the rock above us was bathed in sunlight, like it had been turned upside down and dipped in molten gold. I rushed outside and managed to get the photo I had been hoping for. That night there was a magnificent storm and thunder rolled around the valley non-stop.
Bourges
Our next leg on the way to Paris took us just over 300km further north to Bourges, almost exactly in the centre of France. Bourges is known for its quaint half-timbered houses and grand, Gothic-style cathedral and these were the reasons we had decided to stop here.
We arrived late in the afternoon and walked into town from the campsite. We spent an hour or so wandering around getting our bearings and admiring the exterior of the grand cathedral and the many other lovely historic buildings. Bourges was the capital of France during the time of Charles VII in the 15th century and was a prosperous and busy commercial centre. As a result, many affluent people lived here, and the elegant buildings reflect this, one of the more well-known being ornate Jacques Coeur Palace, home of a 15th-century nobleman.
The next day we visited the cathedral properly and were taken aback by the beauty of the exquisite 13th-century stained-glass windows that line the walls. It is obvious why it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. I decided I couldn’t not climb the tower and left Andrew sitting in the sun in the square below. He’s very choosey on which towers to climb and which ones to leave to me. From above you can see how Bourges finishes abruptly and farmland begins, how flat and vast this part of France is, and the extent of agricultural production.
We wandered back down into the old part of town and admired more of those lovely half-timbered houses that are straight from the pages of a fairy tale, many now the fronts for cafes and chocolate shops.
That evening back at the campsite a Range Rover pulled in towing a very cute retro-style silver caravan. They parked right next to us and Andrew was quick to compliment them on their accommodation. They were quick to compliment Andrew on his black Steinlager T-shirt sporting a silver fern logo as they were Kiwis too, and funnily enough from Mount Maunganui. Wayne and Asa now live in France and they’d come to Bourges to pick up their brand-new caravan that day. Wayne was once the golf professional at the Mount Golf Club and it turns out Andrew and Wayne know many of the same people. We exchanged contact details and promises of a golf game when they’re back in NZ later in the year.
The next morning, we were on our way to Paris.
