St Remy de Provence Attractions

St Rémy de Provence is situated about 20km/12.5mi south of Avignon to the east of the Rhône in the northern foothills of the Alpilles. The town became famous because of Glanum, an important Graeco- Roman town, and as the place where Vincent van Gogh lived.

Between May, 1889 and May, 1890 the painter Vincent van Gogh lived - not entirely willingly - in St Rémy. In 1888 he had settled in Arles, where the scenery and the light of Provence led him to his new style of painting with bright vibrant colors. Gauguin, who was very close to him, visited him there in December. A row between the two of them sparked off a crisis in van Gogh. He cut off his ear and was taken to the asylum of St-Paul-de-Mausole in St Rémy, which is today the Van Gogh Dr. Berron clinic. After Arles, St Rémy was the most important place for van Gogh as a creative stimulus and the images for many of his pictures came to him here.

In the same way that the light and colors of Provence cast a spell over van Gogh, so Nostradamus, born in St Rémy in 1503, like the ruined town of Les Baux (10km/6mi to the south), represents all that is cryptic and mysterious in what we associate with Provence.

Maillane, 7km/5mi to the northeast of St Rémy, is the birthplace of the "Homer of Provence", Frédéric Mistral. His house, in which he lived from 1876, has been turned into a small museum.