This is the little fishing village of Niolon in Provence. We're in fleeces, but most days we wore shorts. Our apartment is on the hillside behind us, where we spent a lot of the week sitting on the balcony in the sun, reading, eating fresh seafood and drinking local wine from a nearby vineyard.

Finally, I got to Arles, where Vincent van Gogh lived for 15 months.
(I'm on a quest to check out all the places he lived.)
There's a great walking tour, with plaques marking the spots where he sat to paint. This is the site of his house (bombed in 1944), "The Yellow House."

 

This is the actual café from his painting, "Café at Night."

 

Cool, or what?

 

This is the bridge from his painting, "The Drawbridge."

 

That's me on the bridge!

 

He ended up in this hospital - the garden shows up in many of his paintings. Something new we learned: when he cut off his earlobe and gave it to the friend/prostitute, he may have had in mind the local tradition of matadors giving the ear of the bull to their girlfriends.

 

On to Saint Rémy, where he checked himself into St. Paul's cloister-asylum, lived for a year, and produced some of his greatest works. What a precious, calm, beautiful place - this was our favorite day.

 

The olive trees from "The Olive Grove."

 

The back of the cloister and the window of Vincent's room on the second floor. That's an easel in the rows of lavender - a group of American artists had come all the way to paint Vincent's vistas.

 

Vincent's room.

 

Vincent's window.

 

Ron's favorite place - the courtyard next to the chapel. It shows up in many paintings that Vincent made of the cloister gardens.
A perfect trip!

 

 

it's good to go HOME
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