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Provence: Travel Details

This is a quick and handy source for details on the sights, hotels, tour guides and restaurants featured in the "Provence: Legendary Light, Wind and Wine" show. For much more (and updates), see this year's edition of Rick Steves' Provence & the French Riviera guidebook.

 
Pont du Gard

There are two riversides to the Pont du Gard: the left and right banks (Rive Gauche and Rive Droite). Park on the Rive Gauche, where you'll find the museums, ticket booth, cafeteria, WC and shops — all built into a modern plaza. You'll see the aqueduct in two parts: first, a fine new museum complex, then the actual river gorge spanned by the ancient bridge.

While it's free to see the aqueduct itself, the various optional activities each have a cost: parking (€5), museum (€6), informative 25-minute film (€3, see below) and a kids' space called Ludo (€4.50, scratch-and-sniff experience in English of various aspects of Roman life and the importance of water). The new extensive outdoor garrigue natural area, featuring historic crops and landscapes of the Mediterranean, is free (though €4 gets you a helpful English booklet). All are designed to give the sight more meaning — and they do — but for most visitors, only the museum is worth paying for. The €10 combo-ticket — which covers all sights and parking — is often your best bet. If you get the combo-ticket, check the movie schedule; the 25-minute film is silly but offers good information in a flirtatious French style...and a cool, entertaining and cushy break. During summer months, a nighttime sound-and-light show plays against the Pont du Gard.

The museum is open daily (Easter–Nov 9:30–19:00, mid-June–Aug until 21:30, Dec–Easter until 18:00, closed most of Jan, tel. 08 20 09 33 30). The aqueduct itself is free and open until 22:00 (as is the parking lot).

Consider seeing the Pont du Gard by canoe. Collias Canoes will pick you up at the Pont du Gard (or elsewhere, if prearranged) and shuttle you to the town of Collias. You'll float down the river to the nearby town of Remoulins, where they'll pick you up and take you back to the Pont du Gard (two-person canoe-€27, usually 2 hrs, though you can take as long as you like, tel. 04 66 22 85 54).

Bullfights à la Provençale

Three classes of bullfights — determined by the experience of the fighters — are advertised in posters: The course de protection is for rookie bullfighters. The trophée de l'Avenir comes with better fighters. And the trophée des As features top professionals. During Easter and the fall rice harvest festival (Féria du Riz), the Arena hosts actual Spanish bullfights (look for corrida) with outfits, swords, spikes and the whole gory shebang (tickets €5–10, Easter–Oct on Sat, Sun and holidays). Don't pass on a chance to see Toro Piscine, a silly spectacle for warm summer evenings where the bull ends up in a swimming pool. Nearby villages stage bullfights in small wooden bullrings nearly every weekend; get more details at the Arles' tourist information office.


 
Le Caveau de Gigondas

Le Caveau de Gigondas has a vast selection of tiny bottles for sampling filled directly from the barrel and a donation-if-you-don't-buy system (daily 10:00–12:00 & 14:00–18:30, on Gigonda's main square). Here you can compare wines from a variety of private producers in an intimate, low-key surrounding.

Palace of the Popes

The papal palace is tourable. The included audioguide leads you through the one-way route and does a decent job of overcoming the lack of furnishings, teaching the basic history while allowing you to tour this largely empty palace at your own pace.

The film auditorium shows a continuous 20-minute video in French that features images of the papal court, both in the Vatican and in Avignon. Nearby, a staircase leads to the tower for a view and windswept café (€10, combo-ticket available with St. Bénezet Bridge — see below, April–Oct daily 9:00–19:00, July daily until 21:00, Aug-Sept daily until 20:00, Nov–March daily 9:30–17:45, last entry one hour before closing, tel. 04 90 27 50 74, www.palais-des-papes.com).

St. Bénezet Bridge ("Pont d'Avignon")

While there's not much to actually see on the bridge, the audioguide included in the €4 combo-ticket (available with the Palace of the Popes admission) tells a good story. It's also just fun to be in the breezy middle of the river with a fine city view (daily April–Oct 9:00–19:00, July until 21:00, Aug-Sept until 20:00, Nov–March 9:30–17:45, last ticket sold 30 min before closing, tel. 04 90 27 51 16). Dip into the tiny and free museum, Musée du Pont, for some bridge history (daily 9:00-22:00, €0.50 WCs in same courtyard).

Roman Aqueduct of Barbegal

To reach the Aqueduct coming from Arles, take D-17 toward Fontvieille, then, 1.5 miles before Fontvieille, follow signs for L'Aqueduc Romain on D-82 (it's signed coming from Fontvieille to Arles as well, on the left). In less than two miles, park at the pull-out (no sign, just after Los Pozos Blancos sign, where the ruins of the aqueduct cross the road). Leave no valuables in your car; the gravel twinkles with the remains of wing windows.

Follow the dirt path to the right through the olive grove and along the aqueduct ruins for 200 yards. Approaching the bluff with the grand view, you'll see that the water canal split into two troughs: One takes a 90-degree right turn and heads for Arles; the other goes straight to the bluff and over, where it once sent water cascading down to power eight grinding mills. Romans grew wheat on the vast fields you see from here, then brought it down to the mega-watermill of Barbegal. Historians figure this mill produced enough flour each day to feed 12,000 hungry Romans.

Hôtel Calendal

Located between the Roman Arena and Classical Theater, this hotel is Provençal chic defined. It does everything right, with smartly appointed rooms — some with views overlooking the Arena — surrounding a large, palm-shaded courtyard. They even have my Provence video on DVD in the lobby. Enjoy the great buffet breakfast (€8), the salad-and-pasta-bar lunch buffet (€14) and the seductive ambience. Price ranges reflect room size (Db facing street-€45–70, Db facing garden-€72–85, Db with balcony-€90-100, air-con, Internet access, reserve ahead for parking-€10, 5 rue Porte de Laure, just above Arena, tel. 04 90 96 11 89, fax 04 90 96 05 84, www.lecalendal.com, contact@lecalendal.com).

Arlatan Museum

Given to Arles by Nobel Prize winner Frédéric Mistral, the museum was to give locals an appreciation of their cultural roots, presented in tableaux that unschooled villagers could understand — "a veritable poem for the ordinary people who cannot read." Even though there are no English descriptions, the museum offers a unique and intimate look at local folk culture from the 18th and 19th centuries.

A one-way route takes you through 30 rooms. The first few rooms display folk costumes chronologically until about 1900, when the traditional dress was replaced by the modern nondescript norm. You'll then see fine freestanding wedding armoires (given to brides by parents and filled with essentials to begin a new home). Finely crafted wooden cages — called panetières — hung from walls and kept bread away from mice. Santons were popular figurines giving nativity scenes a Provençal look. The second floor shows local history and a large room covers lifestyles of residents of the marshy Camargue. A fascinating case shows antique Coursa Provanciale bullfighting memorabilia, including a stuffed champion bull named Lion, who died of old age.
The last two rooms are the collection's pride and joy. In one, a rich mom is shown with her newborn. Her friends visit with gifts representing four physical and moral qualities hoped for in a new baby — good as bread, full as an egg, wise as salt and straight as a match. The cradle is fully stocked with everything needed to raise an infant in 1888.

The next room shows "the great supper" — a traditional feast served on Christmas Eve before midnight Mass. It's 1860 and everything on the table is locally produced. Traditionally 13 sweets — for Jesus and the 12 apostles — were served. Grandma and grandpa warm themselves in front of the fireplace; grandpa pours wine on a log for good luck in the coming year (€4, pick up excellent English brochure, daily April–Sept 9:30–12:30 & 14:00–18:00, Oct–March until 17:00, 29 rue de la République, tel. 04 90 96 08 23).

Fondation Van Gogh

Refreshing to any art lover and especially interesting to van Gogh fans, this small gallery features works by major contemporary artists and pays homage to Vincent through thought-provoking interpretations of his works. Many pieces are explained in English by the artists. The black-and-white photographs (both art and shots of places Vincent painted) complement the paintings (€7, great collection of van Gogh prints and postcards for sale in free entry area, April–mid-Oct daily 10:30–20:00, mid-Oct–March Tue-Sun 11:00-17:00, closed Mon, facing Roman Arena at 24 bis rond-point des Arènes, tel. 04 90 49 94 04, www.fondationvangogh-arles.org).

Back to the "Provence: Legendary Light, Wind and Wine" script

Excerpted from Rick Steves' Provence & the French Riviera 2005