October 16 - St. Remy

Today is the last full day on board the Scenic Sapphire.  It has been a quick two weeks.

In the morning we went on an excursion to Saint-Remy-de-Provence.  It was a quaint little village, just north of the Alpilles mountains that was home to Nostradamus, a reputed sixteenth century seer who published collections of prophecies that have since become famous worldwide.

There are also the ruins of Roman village of Glanum that stood here two thousand years ago.

Cloister in St. Paul de Mausolee

This small little town is home to the St. Paul de Mausolee, a psychiatric hospital where Vincent Van Gogh went for treatment for what is now consider to be bi-polar disease.  The hospital is still an active facility today, but the residence where is Van Gogh lived and its associated gardens are now a tourist site.

In 1889 van Gogh voluntarily entered the asylum of St. Paul. Saint-Paul began as a monastery in the 12th century but was converted into an asylum in the 19th century.








Van Gogh was initially confined to the immediate asylum grounds and painted the world he saw from his room, such as ivy covered trees, lilacs, and irises of the garden. Through the windows Van Gogh could also see an enclosed wheat field, subject of many of his paintings. As he ventured outside of the asylum walls, he painted what he saw as the characteristic of Provence. Over the course of the year, he painted about 150 canvases.

During his time in St. Paul de Mausolee, Van Gogh painted many of his most famous paintings including Starry Night.  During our walk through the town and the residence, our guide showed us the view from which many of his paintings are taken.  

As an interesting sideline, our guide told us of how one of Van Gogh’s doctors received some of his paintings for his fee.  Because Van Gogh was not popular at the time, he used these paintings as wallboards in his barn.  Of course after his death when his paintings became popular and very expensive to buy, these paintings had been destroyed.

Today the current patients use painting as one of their therapies and the best of the paintings are on sale at the gift shop.

Aries along the Rhone River

In the afternoon we went on a slow cruise down the rest of the Rhone River to Aires.  Aires is an ancient Roman town, with its own Roman Coliseum.  This site is still used for bull fights, two thousand years after it was built. People who went there instead of St. Paul de Mausolee where upset with their guide.  She was not very informative and the people missed out on a traditional "running of the bulls" that was taken place in town.

For dinner we were all invited to L’Amour restaurant again.  We had another six course dinner.  It was the same menu that we had early in the trip at this restaurant.  I’m not complaining because the food was delicious.