TOURING FRANCE
HEAVEN SCENT Heidi Fuller-Love savours a region of south-east France famed for its lavender fields and great artists from the past
P
rovence – that glorious, lavender-scented region in south-eastern France that stretches from the lower Rhône to the Italian border – is one of those places you simply must visit at least once in a lifetime. Sadly we only had a week to explore this sun-baked region, which once provided inspiration for the impressionist painters. Time it right and you’ll see the region’s stunning purple lavender fields (roughly mid-to-late June to early August), but the first landscape we encountered was completely different: marshlined roads took us to the fortified town of Aigues-Mortes, on the fringes of the remarkable Regional Nature Park of the Camargue. Founded in part by Louis IX in 1240 as a base for troops bound for the Holy Land, Aigues-Mortes is an architectural gem boasting well-preserved city walls. We spent a lazy morning wandering the
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October 2019 Caravan and Motorhome Club Magazine
ramparts, admiring heat-hazed views of the Camargue salt flats, which shimmered with pink clouds of pretty flamingos that honked like geese. Reluctantly leaving this pretty medieval city, we drove through lush countryside studded with white horses, black bulls and a bright green patchwork of rice fields, to the city of Arles. PAINTING BY NUMBERS Arles was the inspiration for many of Vincent van Gogh’s most dramatically colourful pictures – he only lived in the town from 1888 to 1889 but still managed to produce some 300 paintings and sketches. Sadly, none of his works are kept here but the city’s Vincent van Gogh Foundation occasionally hosts temporary exhibitions. Seeking the spot where the famous Dutch post-impressionist created The Yellow House,
we visited Place Lamartine. We then strolled out to see the place by the river where he painted Starry Night Over the Rhône; and even paid a visit to the hospital, now the Espace van Gogh, where he was committed after cutting off his left earlobe in December 1888. After our Van Gogh tour, we stepped back a few millennia into Arles’ stunning amphitheatre. Built in 90AD, it was modelled on Rome’s Colosseum and could hold a whopping 20,000 people. Moving onwards, the D17 road took us from Arles to the Château d’Estoublon in the heart of the pretty, forested Alpilles Natural Regional Park. This magnificent 18th-century building, famed for olive and wine production, is also a boutique hotel. After splurging on a sumptuous gourmet dinner – local lamb in crispy pastry and a delightful strawberry pavlova flavoured with www.camc.com
