Awesome ARLES: Jul 2024

I have the sensation of running with the stars when I attend the Rencontres d’Arles festival, the annual art photography pilgrimage that takes place each July in the Provençal city of Arles. That is stars in the sky – not those on the red carpet.

I recall the words of Marcus Aurelius from Meditations, the Roman emperor’s series of personal writings: “Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.” Arles was once the capital of Roman Provence.

To run with the stars is to experience awe, wonder – that feeling of being connected to something bigger, something more magical than what we experience from the daily humdrum and pace of life in the digital age. And awe is good for us, say the scientists.

The reality is that I don’t see the stars much when I visit Arles, as I stay in a house 15 minutes’ away from the city, on the edge of the Camargue marshlands.

Here, my evenings are spent indoors, to the chorus of croaking frogs and shielded from the mosquitoes by the screens across the windows.

In the Camargue, if it is not mosquitoes, then it’s the harsh Mistral wind that blows from winter to spring. But then no one said that magical places – full of awe and wonder – were easy places in which to live.

A place of pilgrimage

Arles is the capital of the Camargue, a region renowned for its flat horizons, cobalt blue skies, lush green rice fields and roaming white horses.

The Camargue is a place of pilgrimage, a place where people come together to rejoice and honour, not just lovers of art and photography but also gypsies.

Each year, the gypsies gather at the church of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, on the edge of where the marshlands meet the sea.

They come together to celebrate the legend of the finding nearly 600 years ago of the relics of Mary of Clopas and Mary Salome, both disciples of Jesus.

The biblical story goes that the two Marys, together with Mary Magdalene, sailed across the sea to the Camargue to escape Christian persecution in the Holy Land. And here they stayed.

Since then, the region has drawn in creatives from around the world like a magnet.

Vincent van Gogh was one of those, attracted by the light, the colour and the harmony. While in the city, the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles is worth a visit.

He wrote to his brother Theo in 1888: “I am painting with the gusto of a marseillais eating bouillabaisse”. Other artists and writers to follow include, not least, Ernest Hemingway.

Arles in the frame

To dissect the awe and wonder that I experience at Rencontres d’Arles, and when I visit Arles and its Camargue hinterland, I would pick out:

1. The magic of the land: the flat, sparsely populated, windswept lands that open out to Africa.

2. The historic, limestone buildings rooted in the city’s Roman past.

3. Some of the finest and most thought-provoking photographic art displayed in the urban fabric of the city in some 30 locations, from the 14th century Église des Frères Prêcheurs to the vaulted underground chambers of the Cryptoportiques and the Benedictine Montmajour abbey, a bus ride away, outside the city.

4. The power of connection– chance encounters with people from the world of art photography as you stroll down the narrow streets, bumping into familiar faces, from Berlin to Paris.

5. The sense of fun – the sun is out, the food is good, the local rosé wine is flowing, the bars in the Place du Forum are heaving, and the pétanque game is in full swing along the banks of the Rhône.

And here are some of my favourite haunts in the city:

Eating in Arles

All the places that I recommend below are small inside and small outside. Make sure to reserve.

Chardon – in a narrow road leading up to the Arènes amphitheatre. Here, Yorkshireman Daniel Morgan was the resident chef when I was there in 2023. This was the third time that I’d crossed paths with Daniel. The first was at Carousel in London and the second in Paris. Life often goes in circles.

From the €35 set menu I chose:

Entrée: Coeur de boeuf tomatoes, pickled sardines, gremolata (chopped parsley, lemon zest & garlic) & raspberries.
Main course: Monkfish, peperonata (sweet pepper & tomato sauce), Paimpol beans (from Brittany) & green sauce.
Dessert: Verbena crème brulée with poached peaches.

L’Épicier Moderne – Be sure to book the terrace at this restaurant-cum-grocery store overlooking the Place Paul Doumer in the trendy La Roquette neighbourhood. After my lunch, I filled up my tote bag with olive spread, Bière des Gardians (beer made from Camargue rice) and a bottle of local red Costière de Nîmes from Domaine Marc Kreydenweiss, more famous for his Alsace wines.

New owners have since taken over L’Épicier Moderne. Word has it that it’s just as good.

Le Gibolin – I ate here twice during Recontres d’Arles 2024. Once with a friend. Once alone. The service is friendly. The food is good. And twice I had the same entrée: marinated mackerel with ribbons of courgettes, pickled cherries, chives and mustard seeds. Chef Arnaud Jourdan was previously at Michelin-starred La Chassagnette, in the Camargue, on the road to Salon-de-Giraud.

The Hoffmann empire

Swiss art patron and entrepreneur Maja Hoffman owns some of the most iconic buildings in the city as part of her quest to turn Arles into an arts destination.

Most famous is the iconic, Frank Gehry-designed LUMA Arles ‘creative campus’, opened in 2021, and a 15-minute walk from the city centre.

LUMA Arles is about art and design, including the gardens, created by Bas Smets, the Belgian landscape architect working on the reconstruction of the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris.

There are five places to eat and drink at LUMA Arles. I can only vouch for the ice cream (apple and almond milk sorbet drizzled with ginger syrup) at the Terraces des Forges, an old industrial building refurbished to have no roof, just canopies for shade.

In the city centre, Hoffman brought back to life the Hotel L’Arlatan, with help from Cuban-born artist José Pardo. The design is about colour, intrigue and texture. I was particularly taken by the 3D-printed lights made out seaweed.

A room at L’Arlatan is hors mon budget (beyond my budget), so I went to the hotel’s Courtyard for a drink instead: a glass of Camargue rosé with a grignotage of local chickpea humous and smoked sardines on toast.

Scrubbing up at the hammam

It might seem counterintuitive, but the best escape from temperatures hovering at 35°C, as in Arles in July, is to go somewhere even hotter – the hammam.

My favourite one in Arles is Hammam Chiffa, ensconced behind the bookshelves of local publisher and bookstore Actes Sud, down by the banks of the river Rhône.

It’s not luxury, but it feels good to sweat it out, and then to be scrubbed hard with a rough cloth on a marble slab.

Other places for food & drink

Bar & Restaurant Le Tambourin for a morning coffee at the bar to escape the Bobos, the bourgeois bohemians – a term coined by David Brooks in his book Bobos in Paradise and which has now entered the French lexicon, especially for those outside Paris.

La Fromagerie Arlésienne for local goats’ cheese, in La Roquette, on the Place Antonelle. Opposite is Cave du Grand Sud, a good place for lovers of natural wine, and in particular local rosé wine.

Boulangerie Patisserie Poudevigne for the best bakery in Arles, off the Place du Forum. My go-to place for bread, morning croissants and sandwiches … as well as for raspberry millefeuille and black forest gâteau.

Soleileïs for artisanal ice cream. I’ve yet to try it, but the queues tell me that it’s good.