Place du Forum

I unexpectedly ran into one of the more well known places here in Arles. Apparently, Arles has a strong connection with the painter Vincent Van Gogh. He seemed to have stayed here for two years and has produced paintings of scenes from Arles. I guess Arles was known to be a scenic city and any painter would have wanted to paint here. The Cafe Van Gogh which was immortalized in a painting by Van Gogh is in a nice little plaza called Place du Forum. The name itself is probably a giveaway. It seems that this plaza is near where the old Roman forum was.

I didn’t realize how important this place was until I paid more attention to the details of the buildings around the plaza. One of them stood out for me. There is this Hôtel Nord Pinus which sits in a corner of the Place du Forum, what is special about it is how there is half an old Roman structure embedded in the building. Perhaps this was all that was left of the building and they decided to keep the structure and build the hotel around it. I am not sure I like this idea but I have to admit that it is a very unique idea to keep half of it around.

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