When we were in Provence last week, we stayed in the town of Arles (pronounced Arl). I mentioned it was a town with great Roman ruins. It is also the town where Vincent Van Gogh did most of his work, where he found his inspiration, they said. It is also the place where he had the argument with Paul Gaughan and cut off his ear. There were placards around the town of things that he made famous in his paintings. The first picture is of one of his famous paintings . The next pictures are of the present day restaurant. We had a very pleasant meal there.
In his painting, the building is yellow, showing the restaurant in the glow of gaslight. The building wasn't yellow when Van Gogh painted it, it was off white like the rest of the buildings on the square. The owners of the restaurant, renamed it the Van Gogh Restaurant (it was Cafe La Nuit) and painted it yellow to capitalize on his name.
The restaurant is on the Place du Forum, which is the site where the Roman Forum was at an earlier time. The last picture is of the square. Each of the restaurants (I think there were 4) share the space. As the day went on, it was a very lively place to be.
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