Every design for Arles

Arles is famous for its Roman and Romanesque monuments, for Van Gogh, who painted hundreds of works here, and for its place on the Rhône just where the river divides to form the Camargue delta. The commune is the largest in metropolitan France, taking in much of the Camargue wetlands as well as the plains of the Crau and the foothills of the Alpilles.

People who know Arles carry a certain light with them, and the sense of a town that has been lived in for more than two thousand years. Its old Gaulish name meant something like 'by the marsh', and the water is never far: the wetlands to the south, the river sliding past the old town. In the streets, the Théâtre antique, the Nécropole des Alyscamps, the underground galleries of Les Cryptoportiques and the Cathédrale Saint-Trophime d'Arles sit within reach of the Tour Luma.

Come back from wherever you are, cross the Rhône, and the old town opens up in front of you exactly as you left it.