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 | Arles Downtown car rental - Travel Guide |  |
ARLES is a major town on the tourist circuit, its fame sealed by the extraordinarily well-preserved Roman arena, Les Arènes , at the city's heart, and backed by an impressive variety of other stones and monuments, both Roman and medieval. It was the key city of the region in Roman times, then, with Aix, main base of the counts of Provence before unification with France. For centuries it was Marseille's only rival, profiting from the inland trade route up the Rhône whenever the enemies of France were blocking Marseille's port. Arles declined when the railway put an end to this advantage, and it was an inward-looking depressed town that Van Gogh came to in the late nineteenth century. Today it is a staid and conservative place, but comes to life for the Saturday market , which brings in throngs of farmers from the surrounding countryside, and during the various festivals of tauromachie between Easter and All Saints, when the town's frenzy for bulls rivals that of neighboring Nîmes.
The City
The centre of Arles fits into a neat triangle between boulevard E.-Combes to the east, boulevards Clemenceau and des Lices to the south, and the Rhône to the west. The Musée de l'Arles Antiques is south of the expressway by the river, not far from the end of boulevard Clemenceau; Les Alyscamps is down across the train lines to the southeast. But these apart, all the Roman and medieval monuments are within easy walking distance in this very compact city centre. |
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