Département: Bouches-du-Rhône
Tarascon is situated on the left bank of the lower course of the Rhône about half-way between Avignon and Arles.
Tarascon gets its name from the Tarasque, a fabulous man-eating creature of wild appearance said to have dwelt here and which only St Martha was successful in
pacifying. It has become the heraldic animal of the town celebrated by a festival in June, the Fête de la Tarasque, when a terrifying effigy of the creature is led through the procession.
No less romantic is the second notability, Tartarin de Tarascon, the hero of the novel by Alphonse Daudet. Short and somewhat stocky with a black beard and quite warlike in his behavior, he is nevertheless more inclined to dream his adventures rather than carry them out in reality; in the long run he values physical well-being more highly than war and deprivation, and with his lovable humanity he is, for many, the embodiment of the Provençal character.
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