A company called Grands Bateaux de Provence offers a variety of river cruises on the Rhone, including boat trips between Avignon and Villeneuve-les-Avignon. A return journey takes about 1 hour 15 minutes. Tickets are for sale at the Allees de l'Oulle landing stage, tourist offices, Pont St Benezet or on board. The boat is a River-liner, 50 meters long, accommodating 250, with an upper open air viewing deck. A popular trip is to take the boat down south to the town of Arles to look around the roman ruin. Coloseum and the nearby ampitheater. You are given just under 2 hours to explore this ancient city before the boat heads back to Avignon.

For a cheaper option you could take a train to Arles. A different trip takes you to tour the vineyards of the famous Chateauneuf-du-Pape and view the other Cotes du Rhone vineyards. In addition, a frequent five-minute ferry service crosses the river from the bridge Pont St Benezet to the Ile de la Barthelasse. Visitors can take a bicycle and ride around the paths or just stroll, for magnificent views over the Palais des Papes and city ramparts.

The Roman city of Arles

Arles in Provence, has been captured by famous painters like Van Gogh and Gaugin. It became an important trading centre in Roman times. These Italian invaders have left there mark on much of the still standing ancient architecture. They built a large coliseum in the centre of town to stage gladiatorial games called Les Arenes.

Over 20,000 spectators could watch chariot races, executions and gladiatorial entertainments. Today companies take over the arena and stage Bulfights. There is space for 12,000-strong audiences are able to watch two kinds of bullfighting. The corrida, where the bull is actually killed, and the less shocking Carmaguaise bullfight, where ribbons are removed from the bull's horns.

Next to it the Arena Romans also constructed an Amphitheatre called the Theatre Antiquem, to put on plays. Nearby was the roman bath complex called Thermes de Constantin. Arles became an important port during this time. This trade increased the city's wealth. In the 5th century it became the Roman capital of Gaul (Roman occupied France). You can also visit the old Roman Forum called appropriately the place du Forum. The coming of the railway saw a decline in the prosperity of the city. Goods were transferred direct from ocean going ships in nearby Marseille to freight wagons. These trains bypassed Arles as they went to supply the major cities of France.

Amphitheatre d'Arles - The Roman areana

The amphitheatre is the most important Roman monument of the ancient Roman colony that can be admired today, some two millennia after its construction. Its structure was conceived of to house for large events, accommodating a large public. In their initial construction, the steps could accommodate approximately 210,000 spectators, whose access was organized by a network of gates, galleries and staircases on several floors. At the beginning of the Middle Ages it had become a closed and fortified citadel and the building was only excavated in the 19th C. It then returned, to some extent, to its original purpose, in particular with bullfighting, which has earn't it its current name of the 'Arenes'. It is today the city's most visited monument, carrying the image of Arles around the world.

With a large axis which is 136 meters long and a small axis which is 107 meters long, the Arles amphitheatre is slightly larger than that of Nimes and occupies the twentieth rank in the Roman world. It has the shape of an ellipsis. The facade comprises two levels of sixty arches in a semicircular arch, separated by massive rectangular abutments. A larger opening emphasized the ends of the building's two axes. The main entrance was not to the north as it is today, but to the west side where the remains of a flight of stairs up to the city can be seen today.

The cavea, the place reserved for the spectators, comprises 34 steps, divided into four sections or maeniana, where the spectators were divided according to their social status. The building's original capacity is considered to have been for some 21,000 people. To allow visitors to reach the steps, an ingenious system of circular galleries had been designed, with horizontal passages, and alternating staircases. On the ground floor, the outside gallery is particularly remarkable, due to its roof of large monolith tiles. It gave access to an interior vaulted gallery in a semicircular arch, which opened onto the first maenianum and the lower part of the second.

From the outside gallery, staircases also gave access to the first mezzanine floor, from where one had access either to the second maenanium, or to the outside gallery on the first floor. This system of vertical and horizontal access thus made it possible to reach the top floor of the building. An attic, which has now disappeared, surmounted the building: here masts were fixed which held the awning which protected the spectators from the sun.

The central part reserved for the plays and combats (the arena itself) was separated from the steps by a carefully fitted barrier: the podium barrier made with large stone slabs. The floor of the arena was 2 meters higher than its current height as it was made with a wooden floor, whose boards rested on stone columns, at the top of the lower part of the podium. The machinery required for the events was kept between the walls and the columns which ensured the stability of the arena

Thermes de Constantin - Roman baths

A characteristic expression of Roman civilization, the baths were one of the most common public places. Their success started only between the end of the Republic and the beginning of the Empire: the first public baths only appeared in Rome in 1st century B.C. and only really developed at the beginning of our era, with the invention of the hypocausts. These buildings went hand in hand with the comfort of imperial urban life, and baths associated physical exercises, carried out in the palestre (training room) with baths, ensuring personal hygiene.

Each afternoon the whole population, first the women, and then the men, practiced the rites of dry sweating, of the hot bath in which one's skin sprinkled over with extreme hot water was scraped with a strigile (a kind of small scraper), and finally the rite of the passage in the tepid room and the cold swimming pool. It all ended with a vigorous massage. In addition to their hygienic function, the baths also had a strong social role and were a very important meeting place. Entry was free or almost so, one could go there to practice sport, see spectacles or go to the library.

In Arles, we know of three baths. The first were discovered under the Place de la Republique in 1675 during the erection of the obelisk and are thus today under this monument. Another bath, whose lay-out remains hypothetical, was built towards the beginning of the III century outside the ramparts, to the south of the city. To these two establishments are added the baths of Constantine described here.

The success of the baths has a lot to do with the invention of the hypocaustes. They made it possible to make hot air circulate under the ground of raised rooms thanks to piles of bricks, the suspensura. The air was then evacuated by the vertical channels of the tubuli, lining the walls. These various elements are still quite visible in the Arles baths. The largest part of the original baths is found today under the district's houses. Today, only the northern part of the complex has been uncovered. This part mostly includes the hot rooms and the service rooms. In spite of the quasi total disappearance of the suspensura, the circulation floor, one can see the lay-out of this part rather well.

The principal element here is the caldarium, the hot room with its arched swimming pool. The building, decorated by alternating brick seats and small regular cinder blocks was structured around a semicircular half-apse illuminated by three high windows in a semicircular arch, covered by an imposing quarter-sphere vault. There were two other rectangular swimming pools on both sides of the central part, of which the eastern one, still has its pavement of marble and part of the tubuli. Several hearths were used to heat the caldarium. A real heating room was located in the north-eastern corner of the building, as well as a hearth in the south-western corner of the southern room. The caldarium communicated through two doors with an adjoining room to the south, the tepid room or tepidarium. Entirely deprived of its floor, it nonetheless preserves a Western apse, recently excavated and then filled in while waiting for the restoration. In the east there remains another hot room, probably a lelaconicum or a steam room.

The rest of the complex has not been uncovered since the houses which are next to the site to the south, are heavily dependant on the walls of frigidarium, the cold bath. Some remarkably preserved remains, make it possible to describe it like a vast rectangular room marked off at the ends by an apse.

Les Baths of Constantine were built on the banks of the Rhone at the beginning of the 4th century, perhaps on the site of an older building. They only constitute a part of a vast monumental complex which extended to the north of the city, between the forum and banks of the river. At the time of their construction, after a period of disorders, the city reached an important position, which can be attributed to its increased political and administrative role. The emperor Constantine even made the city one of his imperial residences. Then came the arrival of the Visigoths, followed by a succession of other barbarian invasions.

It however seems that the baths preserved their functions for a time after the fall of the empire. Then they were gradually occupied by parasitic dwellings which squeezed in amongst the ruins until even the memory of the baths disappeared. In the 16th century, scholars from Arles studying the brick and stone remains which had survived on the edge of the river, as well as the traces left in the neighbouring houses, identified the monument with one of the emperor Constantine's palaces. It was given the name Palais de la trouille, from the Latin trulus indicating an arched circular building. Clearing work and excavations in the 19th century showed that they were baths. However, a vast basilical room in the current Hotel d'Arlatan, does not exclude the partial validity of the initial assumption. But one can also identify this basilica with the installation of the Gallic Court in Arles at the beginning of the 5th century.

The rehabilitation of the baths of Constantine dates back to the end of the 19th century. After the repurchase of part of land by the city, Auguste Veran, an architect of historic buildings from Arles directed an important restoration campaign there, allowing the public to visit part of the monument. In 1981, work carried on to strengthen the vault of the cracked tepidarium by several centimetres, and to protect it from water. Important work was carried out to free the stone work from parasitic vegetation. In 1987 the remaining piles of bricks were raised in part of the swimming pool, in the eastern part of the caldarium, by rejointing them with air-slaked lime. In addition, to protect them from the bad weather, the remains of the hypocauste were covered by a tiled roof, according to the idea already used by the architect Jules Formige in 1955. In 1997, the destruction of the western part of the medieval wall allowed an apse and a hearth to be uncovered.

Theatre antique d'Arles - the Roman Theatre of Arles

Preceding its famous neighbour the Amphitheatre by one century, the Arles' Roman theater is not so well preserved today. Built at the end of 1st century B.C., it dates back to the first phase of urbanization of the Roman colony founded by Cesar in 46 B.C. Built on the hill of Hauture, it came under the Roman grid-system, on the decumanus (East-West way).

Reinforced during the Middle Ages and taken over by parasitic constructions- its own materials were often used by nearby buildings- people even forgot about the building's original function. This was rediscovered at the end of the 17th century and was confirmed during the following centuries by many archaeological remains unearthed in its grounds, including the famous  Venus d' Arles. It was only in the 19th century that the site was entirely cleared. There only remain some steps, the orchestra, the stage's curtain-pit and two high marble columns capped with a fragment of entablature. Nevertheless, the theatre has rediscovered , especially in the summer, its vocation as a place for spectacles.

Arles' Roman theatre measures 102 m in diameter. Its 33 steps, including a large section which has disappeared today, supported themselves on an external enclosure made up of three levels of arcades. This building could accommodate 10 000 spectators. The orchestra is separated from the cavea by a wall, the balteus, in front of which, a broad space of 1.20m was reserved for the mobile seats for the colony's notables. The wall of the pulpitum marked the separation between the orchestra and the scenery. It was decorated with ornamented niches, in particular by an altar to Apollo found in 1828. Remains with this same sumptuous decoration were unearthed in many other parts of the site. Two staircases communicated the orchestra with the stage. Excavations and scientific studies made it possible to find its approximate position. Going back about 6 meters, the scene was bordered by vast parascenia (wings).

The stage wall was lavishly decorated. It was made up of three levels of columns as well as a significant statuary, including the colossal statue of Augustus, which is currently kept at the Museum of Ancient Arles and Provence. The famous statue of the Venus d' Arles is preserved at the Louvre. In the middle of the wall was the royal door which was framed on each side by two columns; only those on one side can be seen today. The theatre's external wall was made up of 27 arcades supported by strong pillars. That facade had three levels which were preserved only towards the south, including the Tour de Roland, built at the beginning of the Middle Ages.

Towards the end of the year 40 B.C., shortly after the foundation of the Roman colony, a monumental programme was put in motion concerning the reorganisation of vast public spaces and the construction of three major buildings: the forum, the arc of the Rhone and the theatre, the latter dominating the hill of Hauture. The discipline required by such an urbanization plan and the ambition which it expressed lead us to think that the design and the order came from highest levels of the State. The theatre was finished around the year 12 B.C. For a long time it was used for many spectacles, tragedies, comedies, mimes and pantomimes, to which the public has free entry. There are few details about the monument's destruction .

Its southernmost part (on the side of the summer garden) was strengthened in the 5th century, to which we also owe the construction of the 'Tower of Roland' which was integrated into the enclosure, and the only evidence of the initial construction in the building. Over the centuries its plundering to provide materials for nearby building-sites ended up making some even forget its ancient purpose which was only rediscovered at the end of the 17th century. Various occupants came and went, in particular the Jesuit college, a convent of the sisters de la Misericorde and one of the first open-air public archaeological museums. During the 1828 excavations several pieces were discovered. They can be seen in the museum of Ancient Arles and Provence. The clearing of the site lasted for most of the 19th century.

In 1822, the Baron de Chartrouse, the mayor of the time, decided to undertake a vast campaign of excavation and rehabilitation on the ancient theatre and amphitheatre. An archaeological commission made up of scholars and specialists was created to deal with the expropriation of the houses which covered the sites, and to undertake the excavations. The excavations began in the same year.

They continued, with many interruption (bad weather, priority granted to the restoration of the amphitheatre), until the end of 19th century:- 1823: discovery of the Altar to Apollo and the head of Aphrodite - 1827: demolition of the houses built on the site begins - 1828: discovery of a votive altar, a statue of Silene and a dancer - 1833: the clearing of the monument begins starting with the garden, the buildings of the Couvent de la Misericorde and the houses onto the street; discovery of the colossal head of Augustus - 1840: the theatre is placed on the list of classified historic buildings.

The decision is made to strengthen the two columns. - 1845: demolition work carried out by architects QUESTEL and REVOIL on the Hotel de Boche. The stage is cleared. - 1856: 30 000 F are allocated by the state to buy the last houses which still encumber the theatre. - 1860: the same architects uncover the whole theatre and the excavations are almost completed. - 1900: Jules FORMIGE restores the theatre's steps. In 2004 a large restoration campaign starts following the Ancient Heritage Plan.

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