Following the steps of van Gogh

Last year when I visited Arles with students we went to eight of ten places where van Gogh had been standing painting. Today I walked alone to Alyscamps and the old mill to complete the list outside the citywall. Gauguin also painted the yard when he came to see van Gogh in October 1888.

The Alyscamps is a Roman burial ground just outside the city walls of Arles, in Provence, France. During Roman times it was a famous necropolis. It is named after the mythological Elysian Fields and was the main burial ground for Arles for 1,500 years. The Alyscamps is located outside the old town, in keeping with Roman custom of placing necropolises outside residential areas, and was also at the end of an important road out of Arles: the Aurelian Way, which lead all the way, via the Alps, to Rome. It would have been mainly the rich citizens who would have been buried there and some of the sarcophagi attest to the wealth, and also craftsmanship, at the time. The necropolis was used after Arles became Christianised in the fourth century AD

Cut: http://heritage-key.com/site/les-alyscamps

A butterfly came and sat down on my shoulder!

On my way back butterflies cirled around me all the way to the gate of the graveyard!

Then I walked to the old mill, discovering that the mill was not as it was in the days of van Gogh.

The painting of van Gogh