Van Gogh Walk - Arles or St Remy?

Van Gogh lived in Arles, before he was committed to the asylum near St. Remy.
His room at the asylum can be visited, a very touching place for Van Gogh afficionados. You can gaze through the window at the view he had every day when in that room.
And on the Van Gogh walks, there are copies of his paintings that he made at that point.
Back at Arles, the Yellow House was obliterated in an Allied bombing raid, by accident, collateral damage I guess.
You should do both Arles and the asylum. If for some reason you only could do one, do the asylum.

Thank you. I thought he lived and painted mostly in and around Arles, so didn't understand what the "walk" would be in St Remy, other than the asylum. Sorry the Yellow House is gone and wonder how much that neighborhood has changed sine 1888. With the bombings, maybe quite a lot.

We have not done St. Remy but enjoyed the Arles walk immensely.

As a local, I might have a biased opinion, but St Rémy de Provence is a way more beautiful place for a walk than Arles.

A few years ago, we spent three days in Arles before traveling on to St. Remy to spend a week with friends in a large rented house. The house was good for bedrooms and communal cooking and planning. And it was a nice rural walk from the house to the town of St Remy.

In Arles, you can see some of the scenes Van Gogh painted and enjoy a great museum, the Roman "mini" coliseum, and more.

St Remy is north of the asylum. You can walk through the old Roman town there and walk past the hospital where Van Gogh stayed. The market there is good. It's a smaller town than Arles, and we liked it better as a place from which to explore that part of France. And there's LOTS to explore.

St. Remy is my favorite town to stay in the south of France. I have been there a few times with groups of photographers and one of the things a few of us would do in the morning is to walk down to the hospital and wander around. The hospital itself it not open in the morning but we were able to walk all around the grounds and photograph a lot of the scenes that VanGogh would have seen... it was so peaceful early in the morning. I love the drive into the town with the trees lining the roads... and the Wednesday market is the best. Buy some chicken, bread, cheese, fruit and wine and have a picnic... and of course, some wonderful dessert!

When are you going? We were there in July and were extremely fortunate that there was a temporary exhibit of 31 original Van Gogh on display at the Foundation Vincent Van Gogh in Arles, on loan from museums in Amsterdam and Otterlo. It is scheduled to end on Sept 11, however. We were able to get thisclose to those wonderful paintings. One of the highlights of our trip to France.

Thanks again to everyone. We will be there 16-23 September, so we may miss that exhibit unfortunately. But it sounds like Arles has the walk where you see the tableau's of VG's paintings while looking at the actual scene of the painting. Whereas, St. Remy has the asylum where he spent much of the last year of his life, but maybe not the same kind of Van Gogh walk as Arles. Sounds like there are lots of things to see both places. By the way, the link to the YouTube video was much appreciated. I enjoyed watching it.

No, St. Remy also has places that he painted and copies of his work on easels pointing to those places.
The nuns at the hospital let Vincent paint because they noticed it calmed him. His output while he was at St. Remy was astonishing. You can also see the narrow wooden tubs that they strapped patients into while they gave them cold water therapy there, in addition to his little room overlooking the gardens. You should visit both Arles and St. Remy if you can.

Hope you get to do both and then see for yourself what each has to offer. (but I still favor St. Remy:)

St Remy is a smaller center; I enjoyed the ruins that are just out of town in addition to the Van Gogh sites. Both have great markets. Arles has the wonderful arena, very well preserved. I visited Arles on a RS tour and St Remy on my own.

My preference was St Remy.

We love staying in Arles, but last summer enjoyed an easy daytrip to St. Remy. The asylum where van Gogh lived is beautiful and moving. You can see the Alpilles mountain range immortalized by van Gogh in his paintings. We were fortunate to be there in late June when the lavender fields were at their peak. It was a memorable day.