Saint Rémy de Provence, or St Rémy, is a small town just south of Avignon in the département of Bouches-du-Rhône. It is the local capital of the Alpilles, a small chain of mountains that rises out of the Rhone valley. It is a pretty provincial town, with cobbled streets and fountains. It is the type of place where the well to do swan around in white linen. If you are wondering what to pack for your trip to Provence and you are planning on visiting Saint Rémy then linen is the answer. But nothing too bright, this town is strictly tasteful colours and neutrals only.
The most famous son of Saint Rémy was the French astrologer and seer Nostradamus, and there are several references to him around the town including a small fountain. Not only was he an oracle, but he was also, as my husband was very keen to point out, the writer of the first jam making book.
However, for me there were two main draws to St Rémy-de-Provence. The first was its link to Van Gogh. He was interned there in the Saint-Paul de Mausole nursing home for a year and it was from there that he produced some of his best-known works. The second is the archaeological site of Glanum, an important Greek and roman ruin to the outskirts of the town.
How to spend a day in Saint Rémy
The only way for me to start the day is with a coffee, so the first visit of the day is to the Grand Café Riche. This is on the edge of the inner circle in Saint Rémy. There is a road that circles the historical centre (its a one way street) and most of the pretty streets are inside this, and the restaurants are either inside or on this circle.
Conveniently the two sites we wanted to visit are next to each other. You walk (1km) up the straight road, starting at the tourist office. The tourist guides make a big deal out of this being a “Vincent” walk with small brass plaques on the road and information panels from time to time showing some of Van Goghs painting from the region. Whilst he idea is a good one it didn’t really add much to the day and we felt it could be improved on. You certainly aren’t missing anything if you decide to drive up or take the bus.
The monastery of St Paul is a working Psychiatric unit to this day, but there is one part dedicated to tourist visits. Tickets cost 9€ (or 6.50€ for reduced price entry) this also gets you a reduced price entry at the neighbouring site of Glanum. It’s not a long visit, you get to see the chapel the living areas, the bathroom and what was Van Gogh’s bedroom. You can also walk around the gardens. Whilst it isn’t a big place you do get a sense of history about the place, and also a sense of calm. One can understand how it could help those with mental health issues.
The neighbouring Greek/Gallo romain site of Glanum is well presented, with a visitor centre and audio guides to explain the site. You might think that once you’ve seen one Gallo-Roman site, you’ve seen them all. But as Glanum is set in the Alpilles mountains, it has a particular feel about it, with Mediterranean vegetation of yew and umbrella pines. If you climb to the top, you get an exceptional view. Entrance costs 9€ (reduced to 7€ if you have visited the monastery) and children and students are free.
Back into the centre for lunch at L’Estival. This is a nice open air restaurant (I confess I didn’t look to see if they had seating inside) on a shady square right in the middle of Saint Rémy. It shares the square with several other restaurants including and Italian and a crêperie, but we wanted salads so we chose l’Estival. Service was good and the salads were fresh and well balances, but the tomato bread portions were bigger than expected (you only need one portion between two) and were very heavy on the garlic. We didn’t see a wine list but had a couple of glasses of nice rosé. We paid 70€ in total.
In the afternoon we chose to take the 15 minute drive to Les Baux de Provence. This is a an exceptionally pretty medieval village on a hilltop with fabulous views. The main draw is the castle on the hill which draws tourists from miles around. This makes parking a particular problem with many having to park at the bottom of the hill and walk up. By the time we got there the roads up to the village were lined with cars. But we didn’t go for the castle, we went for the unique site that is the les carrieres de lumieres.
The carrières was the original quarry where the limestone was extracted to build the castle and the village of les Baux. The extraction of the stone has left a large, cathedral like space which is now used to project images. The theme of the light show changes from time to time, this week it was Monet and Rousseau.
It’s a remarkable place, nothing like I’ve ever seem before, and the show is incredibly well done. They have taken the artwork of these famous artist and animated them, just enough to make it interesting but with losing any of the essence of the paintings. The place has a dream like quality about it that I thoroughly enjoyed. Tickets cost 16.50€ which is little pricey, but I felt worth every penny.
In the evening we chose to eat at a small Italian restaurant hidden up an alley in Saint Rémy. This is July, so the busiest time period for these tourist restaurants and the place was full. It soon came clear one of the drawbacks of these small towns with such a high population of tourists, that is getting staff. (Espically considering the high cost of housing in the area). The waitress was doing her best, but she was no match for the number of tables filled. She admitted to us that there were only two people in the kitchen. Several tables got up and left because they hadn’t even got drinks after 30 minutes of waiting. When we asked (politely) if we would be better going elsewhere she promised us that our food would be quick, and true to her word ten minutes after we had been served (after a 40 minute wait) we were served some very nice food. We didn’t wait for desserts though.
Where to stay in Saint Rémy de Provence
For this trip we stayed in an apartment booked through Booking.com. It isn’t my favourite type of accommodation, I much prefer to stay in a hotel, but we are travelling with our 18 year old daughter so an apartment makes sense. It was a nice apartment with air conditioning and a small terrace, right in the heart of St Rémy, next to the Museum Estrinne (which was unfortunately closed). It was a great location and was perfectly comfortable, if a little dark.
Were I to visit again I would stay at the Auberge de Saint Rémy a beautiful hotel with a perfect location, although it suffers from the same problem as the apartment in that is doesn’t have parking. There is a large free car park not far away in the Place de la liberation, but it can get busy particularly on Wednesday which is market day.
Is Saint Rémy de Provence worth visiting?
Saint Rémy-de-Provence is definitely worth visiting. It is a pretty provinçial town with enough to keep you interested for a couple of days. That being said it left me with a feeling that it was missing something. It’s hard to quantify, and in trying to asses my feelings of the place I have come to the conclusion is what it is missing is a soul. Whilst the buildings are authentic, it has been so completely turned over to tourism that one is left with a sense of wanting some real life.
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