Lavender in bloom in Provence, France
With its fragrant lavender fields, serene vineyards and stone villages that glow in the southern French sun, Provence’s luminous beauty has long inspired artists – sculptors, writers and painters alike. Picasso is buried there, British writer Peter Mayle’s books about living in the region spawned a generation of imitators, and Paul Cézanne loved the landscape around Aix so much that he painted Mont Sainte-Victoire, just outside town, 87 times.
The latest creator to make an impact on the landscape is architect Frank Gehry, who designed the twisting metallic tower rising from an area formerly occupied by an old railway depot in the lovely Provençal city of Arles. Gehry’s striking extension to the Luma Arles luma-arles.org contemporary arts complex is an off-kilter conglomeration of steel and glass panels, due to open next spring as Luma’s Arts Resource Centre. Luma, which when completed will comprise a boggling 8ha of warehouses, gardens, dining, gallery and exhibition spaces, opened in 2013, funded by Swiss billionaire patron of the arts Maja Hoffmann with the aim of re-establishing Arles as a creative hub as well as being a drawcard for tourists. At the centre of Gehry’s 60m-high tower is an atrium designed to echo the 2,000-year-old Roman amphitheatre at the centre of Arles – the building that so inspired Vincent Van Gogh, who cut off his ear while working with Paul Gauguin in town. Despite this, Van Gogh loved Arles – it’s where he painted Starry
Night Over The Rhône. Drop into the Fondation Vincent Van Gogh
fondation-vincentvangogh-arles.org to view many of his original paintings as well as to learn about his broader impact on art.
For photography fans, meanwhile, the city’s prestigious annual Les Rencontres rencontres-arles.com festival this year celebrates its 50th anniversary, July to September, with workshops, exhibitions and interactive events, also held at the Luma Arles complex.
To completely immerse yourself in art, book a stay at one of Maja Hoffmann’s other investments – L’Arlatan Hotel arlatan.com
(doubles from £75) or Hôtel Le Cloître lecloitre.com (doubles from £104) – boutique beauties in their own right. With a pedigree that dates back to medieval times, L’Arlatan has been vivaciously reborn, thanks to the talents of Cuban artist Jorge Pardo, whose joyful aesthetic includes the use of two million mosaic fragments throughout, while Le Cloître offers a more serene vibe, with a natural base colour palette, rustic finishes, rooftop bar and easy country-style dining that places you squarely in Provence.