Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Named for the Roman forum that once stood here, Place du Forum was the political and
religious center of Roman Arles. Still lively, this café-crammed square is a local watering
hole and popular for a
pastis
(anise-based apéritif). The bistros on the square, though no
place for a fine dinner, can put together a good-enough salad or
plat du jour
—and when
you sprinkle on the ambience, that's €12 well spent.
At the corner of Grand Hôtel Nord-Pinus (a favorite of Pablo Picasso), a plaque
shows how the Romans built a foundation of galleries to make the main square level in
order to compensate for Arles' slope down to the river. The two columns are all that sur-
vive from the upper story of the entry to the forum. Steps leading to the entrance are bur-
ied—the Roman street level was about 20 feet below you (you can get a glimpse of it
by peeking through the street-level openings under the Hôtel d'Arlatan, two blocks below
Place du Forum on Rue du Sauvage; find information panels above the openings).
Thestatueonthesquareisof
Frédéric Mistral
(1830-1914).Thispopularpoet,who
wroteinthelocaldialectratherthaninFrench,wasachampionofProvençalculture.After
receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1904, Mistral used his prize money to preserve
and display the folk identity of Provence. He founded the regional folk museum (the Ar-
