Saint Remy de Provence

We drove across southern France on May 25 to our next short stop in St Remy de Provence, which was a wonderful drive on French motorways, even with their tolls. We had some car issues which were speedily resolved, thank goodness, and we arrived at our AirBnB only a little later than expected. We managed to communicate with our host via the Internet by making several motorway stops to get wifi (or in French weefee). It is surprising how reliant we become on our electronic ways of communicating. Why the mobile phone was not used is another long story.
Our B&B was a little way out of the town, which was really good, as parking is always a challenge in town.

This was the house where we had our rooms. Breakfast was served on the terrace overlooking the pool and the view of the Alpilles in the background.

 The view from our room, with nice clear air as the mistral was blowing very hard, even the locals were complaining.

On our first walk to the village we came across the Church of St Martin which was quite impressive, although in some need of restoration. You can see in the above photograph, much of the lower part of the murals on the walls and columns has been worn off!

There are a number of shady squares where you can eat or have coffee and watch everyone as they pass by. We could get used to this.

Great local food and we did find a restaurant that was sheltered from the wind, so we could eat outside. These small fried fish were one of the specialties on the Tapas menu.

We were fortunate to be in St Remy on market day and this one was quite spectacular. Many stalls, from fresh fish, vegetables, cheese and olives, to arts and crafts and soap.

And even barbequed pork.

Vincent Van Gogh came to this village in 1889 and stayed for about a year in the local mental institution. During this time he produced over 200 paintings and drawings. There is a "Vincent" walk from the village up to the hospital where he stayed voluntarily and where art was a form of therapy.

The walk is punctuated by copies of Van Gogh's art, which are posted on the roadside as you walk towards the hospital.

Looking back to the hospital towards the rooms that Van Gogh occupied. It was quite remarkable to look out onto scenes that were the subjects and inspirations for his art.
There is a reconstruction of his bedroom and it is very interesting to look out of the barred windows today and see the landscape pretty much as he would have seen it.

The original tiled floor where van Gogh must have paced.

We were fortunate to have seen the original in Paris before we came to visit here.

We had been told of a hill town not far from St Remy called Le Baux de Provence and set off to find it. The car's GPS found a way there which took us along a wonderful mountain road, luckily with not too much traffic.

This was the best view where you can just see the castle and the town surrounding it. The houses have been built out of the local "tufa" stone and partially constructed underground.

The village was absolutely packed with tourists and nowhere to park, so we did not stay. Instead we went to visit the local Roman ruins!

There is much more to see, but we were a bit hot and tired and called it a day. I believe the Romans hung around here until about 400AD and then went home to take care of other business.


As we left St Remy, the mistral died down and it was most pleasant, but beginning to get hot.

Saying goodbye to our host Danielle.

I think he was saying "come back soon".

Onward to Italy.