Theater at Orange: Still recovering from illness I was debating whether I had the energy to cart my bags all over Orange to see this site on my way to Avignon. But I decided to screw my courage to the sticking point and it was so worth it. I was in no way prepared for the scale of the theater. This is the only site - outside of a stadium - that has really given me the impact of how large Roman buildings could be. You can see all the reconstructions but to actually experience it was amazing.
The audio guide adds a lot of context especially while recounting all the challenges and events in the theater - closed, sacked, used a prison during the revolution, apartments build into it - that make it even more amazing it survived.
The bus stop Pourtoules in Orange is very close to the Theater site - you can literally see the top of it sticking up when you get off the bus. They gladly took my Rick Steves bag/back-pack behind the counter at the theater entrance allowing me to wander freely.
Avignon is good as hub for connections and the city walls and papal palace areas are worth a wander but it is not that interesting from a Gallo-Roman perspective.
Pont du Gard: Took the bus from Avignon to Port du Gard and it really is an impressive site. The imposing aqueduct is set in a very parklike setting with trails and the river itself. That being said after you walk the bridge, hike to the viewpoints and take a bunch of pictures there’s not that much more to do at the site. If you wander the various trials you’ll probably come across smaller aqueduct sections. I found several wandering around if you want your one on one moment with a ancient piece of history in a natural setting this is your chance.
The museum has some interesting overviews of the whole aqueduct line and the less visible parts of the aqueduct itself and is worth exploring.
Bus from Avignon is 15A from Bus station left of (facing) the train station under the Ibis hotel. Bus schedule is erratic so plan your out and return.
Saint Remy: The two bigs sites are the asylum where van Gogh was committed to and the adjacent Glanum Gallo-Roman ruins site.
Glanum is a unique site in both that it was forgotten and very well preserved and it is really a Gallo-Hellenistic-Roman town and spans a lot of the history of the region. The site has some really remarkable sections still standing and is in very good shape. It really feels unique in that this is never a site Romans would have ever built on squeezed into one end of the valley. Also the decorations and engravings cover several hundred years before the Romans and it has the real feel of a fusing of different cultures and shows its Gallo-Hellenistic roots even if it ended up “fully Roman”.
The audio guide adds good context and history to the site. The entry area/museum is worth a few minutes but no more. Since the site was originally explored to find all the museum worthy statues and artifacts they have all been carried off to other places.
Arles: You’ll probably enter Arles through the massive gate and old city walls and the main street runs right into the stadium - you can’t miss it. The two big Arles sites are the Stadium and the theater.
The stadium was razed to the second tier of seats and the locals have replaced the original upper tier with seats so the bones of the original structure still exists but all the various parts are original, partially or wholly restored depending on the timeframe.
The unique thing about Arles theater is that it is built on flat ground. If you tour around the back of the seats you’ll see big, repeated barrel vaults the Romans built to elevate the stands in this artificially raised ground. The rest of the theater complex is filled with so many extraneous marble pieces, column fragments it feels a little like a marble junkyard where everything was just piled up.
The museum at Arles is good if smallish but has excellent examples of what they have.
=Tod