Deep in the south of France, Provence offers an almost predictable palette of travel experiences: oceans of vineyards, fields of scented lavender, adorable villages and intoxicating bouillabaisse. But the area is also crammed with ancient history. The Roman ruins here are some of the best anywhere. Many scholars claim the best-preserved Roman buildings are not in Italy, but in France.
Provence was the first part of French Gaul to be brought under Roman rule (the region鈥檚 name derives from the Latin 鈥減rovincia鈥�). The Romans recognized Provence as a prime trading and wine-growing region, where good living was, and is, easy to come by.
With its strategic location between Italy and Spain, Provence became an important part of the worldwide Roman Empire. After Julius Caesar conquered Gaul (58-51 BC), Emperor Augustus set out to Romanize it, building and renovating cities in Rome鈥檚 image.
Most Roman towns in Provence had a theatre, baths and aqueducts. The most important places had sports arenas. Take Arles, for example. In Roman times, the city enjoyed a formidable wall, an arena, a 10,000-seat theatre, a bridge across the Rhone River and an impressive main street. The city today still thrives within the Roman outline.
The epicentre of Roman Gaul was the colonial city of Nimes. Today it is administrated as part of the province of Languedoc, but back then it was in Provencal. Impressive physical remains, especially its stately temple and majestic arena, testify to Nimes鈥� former importance.
The Romans were savvy. Once they鈥檇 conquered a people by brawn, they finished the job with smart benevolence. Admission to Nimes鈥� arena, for example, was free. There were no gates, just 60 welcoming arches, allowing seekers of entertainment to come and go freely. The idea was to create a populace that was Romanized and thinking as one, with subjects and subjugators enjoying the same activities and amusements.
All around Nimes, little bronze crocodile-palm medallions shine on the sidewalks. They are a reminder that Nimes was a favourite retirement home for the Roman officers who had conquered Egypt (the crocodile is Egypt, and the palm tree symbolizes victory.) Even in those days, professional military men retired with enough time for a second career. Did the emperor want thousands of well-trained, relatively young guys hanging around in Rome? No way! How about a nice place in the south of France?
Wherever they went, the Romans impressed the locals with massive engineering projects. In the early first century, Roman builders got to work outside Nimes, erecting the Pont du Gard 鈥� part bridge, part aqueduct. The Romans loved 鈥渁qua vitae,鈥� the water of life. Using nothing more than gravity, Pont du Gard brought 34 million litres per day of fresh spring water to the fountains and baths of Nimes. Huge and solid, its stone arches still range high over its ravine, heralding the greatness of Rome.
Today, most travellers more or less ignore Nimes. But to me it feels richer and surer of itself than other southern French towns, and it is refreshingly lacking in overnight tourists. If you have visited the magnificent Pont du Gard, you have got to be curious about where all that water went.
Another fine Roman legacy in Provence is the open-air theatre in Orange, another popular retirement town for army officers. The Romans were not as serious and highbrow about their theatre as the Greeks, they preferred to be entertained by pantomimes and farces. Operas and concerts are still performed here, backed by the stage鈥檚 soaring acoustic wall. Your backside may ache from sitting on the theatre鈥檚 stone benches, but it is worth it to be under the stars, imagining being one of the crowd 2,000 years ago.
I have always said that ancient sights can give you heatstroke or goose bumps, depending upon your ability to resurrect meaning from the rubble. The Ancient History Museum in Arles is a great place to fill in the blanks. Models of Roman structures breathe life into the stones, showing how they looked in their prime. It helps, for example, in fleshing out Arles Forum in the centre of town, where only two columns remain of the once-mighty building.
Arles鈥� museum sits on a bank of the Rhone River, itself a rich source of Roman artifacts. When a trove of ancient sculptures and bronzes was discovered underwater a few years ago, scuba-diving archeologists had to haul them out at night to keep the site hidden from poachers.
Happily set in the French countryside, all of Roman Provence is basically an open-air museum.
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Rick Steves writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and radio. Email him at [email protected].
