TUESDAY APRIL 17th, ROUTE 3 : ARLES THROUGH THE LITTERATURE FROM XVIIth TO XIXth CENTURY.

-Theater : Discovering of the statue of the Venus of Arles on June 6, 1651, then offered to Louis XIV in 1684 to decorate the castle of Versailles: birth of the myth of the beauty of the women of Arles, topic taken again by the Félibrige and glorified by the poet Theodore Aubanel on his poem : La Vénus d’Arles-Mairie : moulding of Venus of Arles in the town hall of Arles (original in The Louvre)

-Hôtel Quiqueran de Beaujeu : today national school of photography. This hotel belonged to the Quiqueran family of Beaujeu, one of most considerable of Arles from XIVth century to the French revolution. Its most famous representative is Pierre de Quiqueran, bishop of Senez, which published La Provence louée, en 1614, invaluable testimony of the arlesian and regional life from the end of the XVIth century and the beginning of the XVIIth century.

-Banks of the Rhône : the vision of Arles by the travellers of the XVIth-XVIIIth centuries is nearly always the same one : the Rhone and its bridge of boats, the beauty of the light on the monuments, pleasant character of the inhabitants, active trade. After the French revolution and in spite of the cultural revival by Frederic Mistral on the second half of the XIXth and the beginning of the XXth century, testimonies of the travellers, until the second world war, describe a declining city, ruined monuments, old population, commercial and cultural activities very limited. The majority of the chroniclers did not perceive the works which were made during this period by several local scholars who joined together a very important documentation and thus prepare the revival of the city from the years 1946-1950 (On the afternoon some documents will be presented during our visit in the Public library and Local Archives) . Among the travellers (XVIIth century), we can quote Chapelle et Bachaumont who wrote some lines on their passage in Arles in 1662 ( Relation du voyage de MM. Chapelle et Bachaumont, en Languedoc et en Provence, l’an 1662), but the most important texts (XVII-XVIIIth centuries) are historical descriptions by the main historians of the Provence : Pierre Gassendi (Viri illustris Nicolai Claudii Frabricii De Peiresc, senatoris aquisextiensis vita, 1641), Honoré Bouche (La Chorographie ou description de la Provence, 1664), Jean-François de Gaufridi (Histoire de la Provence, 1694), César de Nostradamus (Histoire et chronique de Provence, 1614), le Père Papon (Voyage de Provence, 1787), Louis Moreri (Le grand dictionnaire historique, 1707), etc.

-Main monuments (Antiquity – XVIth century) : The most detailed literary testimonys - mainly on monuments - will be written on XIXth century after the famous publication of the report by Prosper Merimée (1803-1870) general inspector of the historic buildings, Notes d’un voyage dans le Midi de la France -Notes of a voyage in the South of France (1834-1835)In 1834, Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) gave an historical and physical description of Arles in which we can find a lot of valuable details concerning the monuments (Spina, Saint Trophime, Forum, Cloister, Arenas, Theater, Alyscamps, market and arlesian people). For Dumas “Arles is a tomb… who contains as much richness than it offers poverty and of misery on the surface”In 1837, Stendhal (1783-1842), coming from Nîmes, give us a short description of Arles which will be published in his Mémoires d’un Touriste, 1838.(Theater, spina, Roland’s Tower, Saint-Honorat, Arenas, and some lines about the provencal language)In 1839, Victor Hugo (1802-1885) writes some observations on his Voyage dans les Alpes et dans les Pyrénées, and sends some letters concerning Arles to his friend Auguste Vaquerie

-Place du Forum, Statue de Mistral, Museon Arlaten : the most important event for Arles and the whole Provence is the role of Frédéric Mistral (1830-1914) : in 1854 he founds the Félibrige with a group of provencal poets and artists in order to preserve the culture and the language of Provence; in 1855 he creates a newspaper l’ Armana Prouvencau; in 1859 he publishes his most famous novel Mireille which is at the origin of the rebirth of the language of Oc in Provence, Catalogne, Aquitaine and Languedoc; in 1867 he composes the poem Coupo Santo anthem of the union of all the provencal people. In 1878 Mistral publishes his Trésor dou Félibrige ou Dictionnaire provençal-français : embrassant les divers dialectes de la langue d'oc moderne, bilingual dictionary Provencal-French; from 1896 to 1906 Mistral creates the Museon Arlaten in which all the documents of provencal origin will be preserved (objects, books, furnitures, etc). In 1904 he receives, with his friend José Echegaray, the Nobel Prize of Literature "in recognition of the fresh originality and true inspiration of his poetic production, which faithfully reflects the natural scenery and native spirit of his people, and, in addition, his significant work as a Provençal philologist"-in 1885, Théodore Aubanel (1829-1886), published his more important collection of poems (Li fiho of Avignoun - girls of Avignon) in which is his famous text La Vénus d’Arles.-in 1888-1890, Paul Mariéton (1862-1911) a Mistral’s close friend, founder of La revue Félibréenne, wrote and publish a charming text, La terre Provençale, Journal de route - the Provence, Travel diary, in which he describes Arles and its surroundings. A large part of his private library is now preserved in the Museon Arlaten.

VISIT of the MUSEON ARLATEN

AFTERNOON : Visit of the Médiathèque Municipale Van Gogh and Local Archives