Roman Arles

Arles was a major Roman town and it never stopped being a town, so the ruins sit inside streets people still live on. The amphitheatre from the first century held around twenty thousand and was later filled with houses and turned into a fortified village; three medieval towers still stand on top of it. The theatre beside it has lost almost everything except two standing columns and its tiers of seating. Under the forum runs the cryptoporticus, a horseshoe of dark vaulted galleries that carried the market above. Outside the centre, the Alyscamps is an avenue of empty stone coffins under plane trees, painted by Van Gogh and Gauguin in 1888.

What you actually see

• The amphitheatre - two tiers of arches with medieval towers left on top.
• The cryptoporticus - dark vaulted galleries under the Roman forum.
• The Alyscamps - a long avenue of stone coffins under plane trees.
• Saint-Trophime - a carved Romanesque portal and cloister off the main square.

When to go

Spring and early autumn are the sensible windows; July and August get hot enough to make the open sites unpleasant by midday, and the cryptoporticus is the only genuinely cool place in town. The amphitheatre hosts Camargue bull games and concerts that close it for the day, so check before building a plan around it.

Honest expectations

Arles trades heavily on Van Gogh but holds none of his paintings; the local foundation shows loans and contemporary work instead, which surprises people who came for the pictures. The monuments are individually small and the combined ticket only pays off if you use most of it. Summer heat and the mistral wind both arrive without warning.

Nearby

The Camargue wetlands south, the abbey at Montmajour and the quarry theatre and old town of Les Baux.