Van Gogh's Asylum

The wonderful St. Remy market was just a road stop for us - our real destination was St. Paul's Hospital just south of the town.  Van Gogh checked himself into the mental hospital and stayed there for almost a year.  Here is the statue of Van Gogh pathetically clutching his sunflowers in the garden.

St. Paul's was a monastery before it became an asylum.  The splendid romanesque cloisters surrounded this beautiful courtyard.

Here are some young visitors enjoying each other's company, oblivious to the gorgeous architecture -

Van Gogh's bedroom in the hospital and below that, the view from his window.  He had painted both the room and the view.

The view of the hospital and chapel from the lilac fields.  The gardens and the fields around the hospital all looked familiar because they had all been painted by Van Gogh - this was one of the more prolific periods in his life.
  

Here's the painting

Here's the landscape in front of the hospital grounds

One thing we noticed while we were in Provence - there were many mountains and natural landscapes - we were actually right in a vast national park.  But while the French promoted art avidly everywhere, there was very little promotion of hiking and other outdoor activities.  Not once did we come across any literature in the tourist offices promoting hiking trails.  This was in sharp contrast to our last trip in New Zealand where we were bombarded by suggestions for tramping everywhere.  One almost felt guilty if one didn't hike.  Here, it's the art...

A different kind of quail - Arles

It turns out that quails are a regional specialty in this part of Provence, hence multiple handpainted renditions in this shop in Arles. I have never seen so many quails in my life! 

Arles is also a different kind of city from Avignon or Aix-en-Provence.  While Avignon and Aix are genteel, classy, "safe", I found Arles has a very different flavour, one that grew on me after the initial unease and as I got more comfortable with the narrow alleys and slightly dilapidated buildings.  It is colourful with a different timbre.   Maybe this was why Van Gogh liked to hang out here.  This is the cafe that he painted in The Cafe Terrace and below that, you see the hospital courtyard which he painted.  He was admitted to this hospital after he cut off part of his ear.

Artists continue to hang out.  Here is one attempting to render the gorgeous portal of the romanesque Church of the St. Trophime Cloisters (more on this in the next post).

Then there are those who coordinated their washings

and their dinner backdrops...

Streets of colour

I would have problems deciding too!

A different kind of L'Arlesienne...

See the one Van Gogh painted at:
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/51.112.3

And a Happy July 4th to my American family and friends!