Michael and I spent the last week of our summer vacation in Arles, which is a lovely little-ish city in the south of France. As a quick reference, Arles is at the western edge of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, which itself sits in the southeastern-most part of the country, with Italy bordering the east and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Back in the day, Arles was an important Roman city, complete with its own theater, amphitheater (aka coliseum), triumphal arch, and circus (of the chariot kind, not the dancing pony variety). Many of these monuments still stand today, and UNESCO has recognized them together as a world heritage site since 1981. So why did we chose to spend a week in Arles for the second year in a row? Well, it's a great base for exploring Provence, which is an absolutely magical land of sun-drenched lavender breezes overflowing with bottles of chilled rosé. Only slightly exaggerating. The south of France is where my soul craves to linger for longer than I am ever allowed to stay. The city of Arles is also home to two annual festivals that overlap for one artsy week every July. The more famous of the two is the Rencontres d'Arles, an annual international photography festival that has been going strong since 1970. Apparently, nearly 100,000 people visited the festival last year; and for a town with a population of around 50,000, it's kind of a big deal. The festival showcases work that has never been seen by the public, and displays the exhibits in historic sites around the city, such as a 12th century chapel, or the hospital where Vincent Van Gogh stayed for a few months, or a 19th century industrial building. The venues are really just as interesting as the art. The verdict? For us, it was so-so. Some of the photos were awesome, while others were meh. I'm not ever a fan of art that I could easily bang out myself, but it was still fun to explore. At one of the more memorable exhibits, we were handed flashlights to "discover" photos in rooms of an abandoned building that were dimly lit with a soft glow of red light. Creative. The real reason for our visit to Arles this year was to attend a music festival called Les Suds à Arles. Musicians from around the world take over the city squares and alcoves for free open-air concerts throughout the week, which are usually located strategically by a café, where aforementioned glass of rosé can be enjoyed. Every night, bigger acts perform in the open-air ancient Roman theater, which was built in the first century AD. The stones that make up the ancient seating area are still used by concert-goers, and while sitting where thousands of ancient Romans sat to watch comedies and tragedies is pretty cool, it's not exactly luxury seating. We usually have no idea what performers will be playing any given night, so it's always a bit of a new and surprising experience. These ladies (and token guy) were our favorite act. They just rocked it. The last festival that capped off our absurdly-long 2014 summer vacation was the Festival d'Avignon, which bills itself as a living art festival. While we didn't actually attend any events, you feel like you are part of the show just walking around the city. We are talking four weeks of performances every year, now into it's 68th year. This is drama nerd holy land - if you were a drama nerd in high school and enjoy massive amounts of people all up in your business, then you must put this festival on your bucket list and make the pilgrimage. In the few short hours we were there, we saw a gingerbread-man puppet, a trio of silent creepy lady dancers, a number of dudes on stilts, a large women wearing balloons promoting a burlesque show, a very large beast-man wearing a muzzle who would put a noose around unsuspecting bystanders only to be persuaded by his companions to "let them go", just to name a few. Here is a great article if you'd like to read more about the festival, and a tiny glimpse of the poster-clad ambiance in the square where we ate dinner. For more photos of our complete trip, and some new ones from Italy, check out the album.
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AuthorBecause why not get married and move to Paris to really kick off your thirties? Archives
December 2016
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