Saint Rémy

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May 2015

 
 
Continuing from Arles, we stopped at the Moulin de Daudet in Fontvieille. The windmill was the inspiration for some stories by Alphonse Daudet, also a favorite French children’s author. Along the route, we passed a portion of a Roman aqueduct and cycled up through Les Alpilles to Les Baux, from which the word “bauxite” is derived, after its discovery there in 1821. Baux is a fortress town, with a castle at its top. Now the town is mostly for tourists, however. Saint-Rémy is beautifully situated, with a backbrop of Les Alpilles, and the Romans recognized this, too. Here (ancient Glanum) is found a well preserved Augustan arch as well as the Monument of the Julii, with figurative scenes at the base and two statues of men in the upper portion. During the year that van Gogh spent at the Saint-Paul Asylum, he created more than 140 paintings. The beauty and peacefulness of the garden and its surroundings is soothing to modern visitors, as well.