An hour away from Montpellier is the Provençal town of Arles. Previously a Roman town, it has an amphitheatre, a theatre and the Alyscamps, a field of famous graves. So famous in fact that, in mediaeval times, people used to pay to be buried there and the Rhone boatmen made a fortune transporting coffins.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alyscamps

There is also a famous poem. https://www.poetica.fr/poeme-1956/paul-jean-toulet-en-arles/

We have seen the amphitheatre – now used for both Spanish corrida (bullfights where they kill the bull) and French ones (where they don’t). Interestingly the guide pointed out that not only are there tombs to the best undefeated bulls in the Camargue, but also the possibility of meeting a bull when going for a quiet swim has helped to save that bit of the coast from the developments of the rest of it.

After the amphitheatre we went to the theatre – used these days for theatrical and musical productions.

This is the Fondation Luma, a modern art museum. The building a by Frank Gehry (who built the Guggenheim in Bilbao). It is a very dramatic building, on the site of an old railway works, with conversions of the old industrial buildings out the back. It is a shame they have way more building than art (apart from viewing platforms, the top 5 floors are not open to the public).

And then we drove through the Camargue. We saw bulls, horses, rice fields and flamingoes. All the things on the posters.

And dinner – three courses in a fish restaurant by the quayside. Yum!