We find visiting Roman sites inexpressibly thrilling!

Travellers may  be surprised to find — as we were — that Roman ruins in Provence are not isolated to particular archaelogical ‘digs’, but rather are part of the everyday landcape in hundreds of locations. You come across them on walks through wild countryside, while navigating along canals, in villages and cities everywhere.

Countless Roman bridges are still in use, and although many Roman buildings and structures have been ‘mined’ for hundreds of years to provide free pre-cut building stone, a number of buildings, whether located in city centres or out in the countryside,  are still in surprisingly good repair.

Should you wish to read more about Roman Provence, good booklets are available at Tourist Offices and at the brilliant Arles museum.

Most of our favourite Roman sites described briefly below,
are in or near to Arles, once called “the little Rome of Gaul”.

Arles is particularly significant because it was a junction on
the vast Roman road network radiating out to Spain, France, and Germany, and because it was  also a busy seaport,
linked to the Mediterannean by canal. Veterans of the 6th
Legion settled here in considerable numbers.

Arles *****
The Arles Museum, on the river bank on the site of the Roman circus, will give you a lively and detailed insight into the history and the culture of the Romans before you start touring actual Roman sites. Despite the scruffy, unfinished setting, the museum is brilliant, and the models, graphics, and displays are absolutely inspiring.

Nowhere is the sense of continuity between Roman and French culture as apparent as in the Arles old city. In fact, the aerial view of Arles depicted on the book cover above strongly resembles aerial views of today’s city in tourist brochures.

The Arles Théâtre Antique is sadly just a few stones, with awful plywood seating, though in a romantic and interesting setting. Recently, sympathetic restoration has been taking place, while Les Arènes, the amphitheatre, is in very good condition and is still used for a range of sporting and cultural events. Engravings of the state of the Amphitheatre in medieval times, when it was used as fortress and as a ghetto for the poor, who had burrowed into the vaults, show how nearly we came to losing this brilliant structure entirely.

Some Roman remains, such as the Cryptoportiques, are no longer accessible, but it’s well worth seeing the obelisk in the Place de la République. It once stood in the centre of the Arles racetrack, the Circus.

Amphoralis Roman pottery museum *****
Situated at Sallèlles d’Aude, near Narbonne, this brilliant small museum has been constructed on the site of the only known industrial-scale Roman pottery works. The displays are excellent, the replica kilns are beautiful, but the highlight is the array of kiln foundations, dug up just below the surface of the former vineyard on the site.

Glanum, St Rémy-de-Provence *****
Is a sleepy village just east of Arles, famous for its connection with Vincent Van Gogh. Glanum, on the outskirts of the town and just below the ridge of the Alpilles, was a thriving Roman town, and while there are only 2 substantial standing constructions today, the triumphal arch and the mausoleum, the layout of the streets and foundations of a large part of the town has been excavated.

The setting, among olive groves, and leading into a gorge, is wonderful, and strolling the streets is a brilliant experience. Incidentally, the Monastery of St Paul, where Vincent Van Gogh spent  most of the last year of his life, is immediately next door.

Barbegal ***
Barbegal is adjacent to the village of Fontvieille, just across the marshes and fields from Arles. In a lonely rural setting on a limestone escarpment, it is the site of one of the biggest industrial projects of antiquity.

Today, there’s not much to see. Only the ruined aqueduct, the channel cut through a rocky ridge, and the machinery bases remain, but the models and illustrations at the Museum help the visitor imagine the significance of this fantastic site.

Here was a huge industrial-scale flour mill with sixteen water-powered millstones, capable of producing enough flour daily to feed many thousands of people. There’s no water at the site today, but when the mill was working, water was reticulated here from the nearby mountain range, the Alpilles, driving the mills and enabling boats to carry the flour to Arles.

Orange *****
A medium-sized and not particularly attractive town, Orange is famous for two sites...

The massive triumphal arch, sadly beset by busy traffic on the route to Montélimar, is quite well-preserved, though the inscriptions and carvings have been blurred by time and weathering.

The theatre, set into an escarpment, and cut off from the surrounding suburbs by parklands, is simply breathtaking, the best preserved Roman theatre of all! The bowl of seating, partly cut into the solid rock, is impressive enough, but it is the stunning proscenium wall that is incomparable.

From the 16th to the 19th centuries, countless poor people burrowed into the structure and lived in it as a squalid tenement. Despite this, little restoration has been required, and the theatre is still used for musical events today.

The Pont du Gard, Nîmes *****

The aqueduct is the Roman engineering masterpiece, and
rigorous calculations, design work, and precision construction made the whole system function on a tiny fall of seventeen
metres over a run of 50 kilometres. The power and beauty of
this structure is remarkable, and walking trails follow many of
the related water channels.

Vaison la Romaine *****
Like Glanum, Vaison offers the opportunity to walk through and between Roman buildings, though rather than being out in the countryside, the two districts that have been excavated are located right in between modern housing precincts of the village. Here, there is not a great deal above ground, but you will be entranced by the museum, with its wonderful mosaics, by the theatre, and above all, by the opportunity to pace out entire villa layouts.

Wealthy Roman villas, like those at Vaison, though huge in area by our standards, are incredibly modern in layout, and any visitor can thrill to the logic of their design. The theatre has been over-restored, and is really only a site, not a structure.

La Trophée des Alpes, La Turbie *****
This ruin, restored in the 1930s, is very different from all the others described, and is well away to the east. La Turbie, a pleasant village, is situated on a remote balcony above the scrubby cliffs near present-day Monte Carlo. Here, on the road between Rome and Gaul, on a splendid site with sensational views across the sea and along the coast into Italy, La Trophée was built to celebrate Emperor Augustus’ victories over the forty-four alpine tribes.

Once 50 metres of gleaming limestone and marble, perhaps showing a light across the sea at night, it must have been absolutely stunning. Only a segment of the Trophée des Alpes remains today, just 35 metres tall. But what remains is fantastically impressive, and the setting is simply magical. Models of La Trophée show that it originally resembled a gigantic wedding-cake.

Link to Trophée des Alpes website...