| The doorway of the Cathédrale St-Trophime on Arles' central place de la République is one of the most famous examples of twelfth-century Provençal stonecarving in existence. It depicts the Last Judgement, trumpeted by angels playing with the enthusiasm of jazz musicians while the damned are led naked in chains down to hell and the blessed, all draped in long robes, process upwards. The cathedral itself was started in the ninth century on the spot where, in 597 AD, St Augustine was consecrated as the first bishop of the English, and it was largely completed by the twelfth century. A font in the north aisle and an altar illustrating the crossing of the Red Sea in the north transept were both originally Gallo-Roman sarcophagi. The nave is decorated with d'Aubusson tapestries, while there is superlative Romanesque and Gothic stonecarving in the extraordinarily beautiful cloisters, accessible from place de la République to the right of the cathedral. Across place de la République from the cathedral stands the palatial seventeenth-century Hôtel de Ville, inspired by Versailles. You can walk through its vast entrance hall, with its flattened vaulted roof designed to avoid putting extra stress on the Cryptoporticus du Forum below. This is a huge, dark, dank and wonderfully spooky three-sided underground gallery, built by the Romans, possibly as a food store, possibly as a barracks for public slaves, but certainly to provide sturdy foundations for the forum above. Access is from rue Balze (€3.50). In case you feel that life stopped in Arles, if not after the Romans, then at least after the Middle Ages, head for the Musée Arlaten on rue de la République (daily: April–May & Sept 9.30am–12.30pm & 2–6pm; June–Aug 9.30am–1pm & 2–6.30pm; Oct–March 9.30am–12.30pm & 2–5pm; €4). The museum was set up in 1896 by Frédéric Mistral, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist who was responsible for the turn-of-the-twentieth-century revival of interest in all things Provençal, and whose statue stands in place du Forum. The collections of costumes, documents, tools, pictures and paraphernalia of Provençal life are alternately tedious and intriguing. The evolution of Arlesian dress is charted in great detail for all social classes from the eighteenth century to World War I and there's a mouthwatering life-size scene of a bourgeois Christmas dinner. Another must-see in Arles is the main collection of the Musée Réattu (daily: March–April & Oct 10am–12.30pm & 2–5.30pm; May–Sept 10am–12.30pm & 2–7pm; Nov–Feb 1–5.30pm; €4), housed in a beautiful fifteenth-century priory opposite the Roman baths. Much of it comprises tedious and rigid eighteenth-century works by the museum's founder and his contemporaries, but dotted round this are some good modern works: Zadkine's study in bronze for the two Van Gogh brothers, Mario Prassinos' monochrome studies of the Alpilles, César's Compression 1973 and, best of all, Picasso's Woman with Violin sculpture and 57 ink-and-crayon sketches made in Arles between December 1970 and February 1971. Amongst the split faces and clowns is a beautifully simple portrait of his mother. Alternate spellings:: Arles, Arle, arle, France, arlle, arlésienne, visiting, visitor, tourist, info, information
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