Saint-Trophime

At 9.30 the next morning I walked back down the avenue of tombs at Les Alyscamps towards the centre of Arles and the church of Saint-Trophime (1st pic). Here I hoped to pick up a Créanciale, or pilgrim passport, which would be stamped at gîtes, hostels, town halls and tourist offices along the Way - the Catholic Church's official verification of my route. (I've written about the Créanciale before here; and here's a photo of my Créanciale from last year.)

In Saint-Trophime I was ushered into the sacristy. One of the church officials explained apologetically that they had run out of Créanciales. She asked Antoine, one of the church helpers, if he could try and find one elsewhere. In the meantime we chatted about religion, spirituality and the motives which lay behind pilgrimage. I just about managed to understand and respond (in a fashion) to the metaphysics - after all, I'd barely spoken any French for a year! Antoine returned with a brand new Créanciale and requested 3 euros. It was almost 11 o'clock. The priest came in and shook my hand. "Ah, a pilgrim!" he enthused as he changed quickly into his vestments. "You'll be staying for mass? It begins in 2 minutes." It seemed churlish to refuse.

After mass I stumbled in bright sunlight down the church steps, past the beggars and into the Place de la République. In the centre of the square was a fountain and an Egyptian obelisk. On the northern side stood the Hôtel de Ville, the Town Hall. I looked back at the church's west portal, one of the sculptural wonders of Romanesque France (2nd and 3rd pics). The midday heat was overwhelming. It was getting very late in the day to begin the 1st stage of my walk. 20 km separated Arles from Saint-Gilles where I'd planned to spend the night - 20 km across the flat, baking hot, mosquito-ridden Camargue. I turned my back on the square and headed over the river into the suburb of Trinquetaille. The pilgrimage had begun.

Les Alyscamps

Les Alyscamps has a charm and unique atmosphere that haunt me still. It's the traditional start of the Arles pilgrim route which threads a path via Montpellier, Toulouse and Pau to the Col du Somport (the French-Spanish Pyrenean border crossing) and then down the valley of the river Aragón to Puente La Reina. I walked the short distance from Arles youth hostel to Les Alyscamps early on Sunday morning 7 September. The sun was already hot and there were few other people about. My pack felt heavy but my spirit was light.

Early Christians had subsequently built the Romanesque church of Saint-Honorat on this ancient Roman necropolis. Today it seemed forsaken as a place of worship, and pigeons flew in and out. It was very beautiful.

I noticed another coquille, or scallop shell motif, sign of Saint James and the Camino, high up in a recess. These symbols would pop up reassuringly in churches and cathedrals, on road signs and waymarkers, throughout the whole journey.

The site of Les Alyscamps (a corruption of the Latin Elisii Campi: that's Champs-Élysées in French and Elysian Fields in English) was for 1500 years a well known burial ground. In Roman and early Christian times coffins were transported here from all over Europe. (The Rhône boatmen made a very profitable living out of this.) You see, the Romans did not allow burials within their city limits - and Les Alyscamps lay just outside the walls of Arles, on the final stretch of the Aurelian Way. This last section of road quickly became lined with mausoleums, and with sarcophagi stacked one on top of the other. (Much the same kind of thing happened along the Appian Way as it led into Rome.) As is always the case, only the very well-off citizens could afford this funerary expense. The whole area was thoroughly ransacked and looted centuries ago, but some of these stone coffins still lie around today.

Night Café

I left London's Victoria Coach Station at 3.30 pm on Friday 5 September. Direction: the Channel Tunnel and France. After changing coaches in Lyon I arrived in Avignon late the next morning. A short train journey took me to Arles, the lowest bridging point of the river Rhône. Pilgrims from Italy and from central and eastern Europe have congregated here for centuries before commencing the long trek westwards to Compostela.

Arles used to be an important Roman city, and many Roman antiquities still remain - including the baths and the amphitheatre. Before the Romans Arles had been occupied by the Greeks. I even spotted some Greek inscriptions on some of the stone sarcophagi in the necropolis of Les Alyscamps. This is Van Gogh's impression of Les Alyscamps:

Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) came to Arles in February 1888 and lived there in the Yellow House - then in the mental hospital at nearby Saint-Rémy - for scarcely more than 2 years. On arrival he was immediately entranced by the Provençal light and landscape, and in a feverish bout of activity produced around 300 paintings and drawings - including many of those which later became his most famous. Café Terrace At Night, for example. You can still see this café today. In fact I walked right past it. He wrote of this painting: In my picture of the 'Night Café' I have tried to express the idea that the café is a place where one can ruin oneself, go mad or commit a crime. Yes, absinthe was the downfall of many an artist of the time...

I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things. VAN GOGH

I see drawings and pictures in the poorest of huts and the dirtiest of corners. VAN GOGH

Poetry surrounds us everywhere, but putting it on paper is, alas, not so easy as looking at it. VAN GOGH