Arles

a 2,000-year-old, two-tier amphitheatre that once seated ~20,000 and still fills for férias and concerts — climb the tower for the rooftop-and-Rhône view

stand where Vincent set his easel — the Café Terrace at Night on Place du Forum

Frank Gehry's crumpled-steel tower over Maja Hoffmann's contemporary-art campus

the ruined Roman theatre still staging summer shows, the poplar-lined Alyscamps necropolis and the Romanesque portal and cloister of Saint-Trophime

the blue riverside museum of Roman Arles — mosaics, sarcophagi and the Rhône barge and Caesar bust hauled from the river

Arles is the southern anchor of the Provence-and-Camargue cruise run

the French line's signature southern-Rhône itineraries turning at Arles, pairing the town with Camargue and Avignon excursions and regional cooking aboard

the world's leading photography festival takes over the town's chapels, cloisters and industrial halls with ~40 exhibitions, opening-week screenings and awards

the Camargue's bull-and-horse festivals — Feria de Pâques at Easter and the Feria du Riz in September

a courtyard-and-pool retreat like L'Hôtel Particulier or the artist-designed L'Arlatan, minutes from the Roman core

the river gold at the spot Van Gogh painted the stars, then dinner on the café square he immortalised

the delta's own larder — Camargue red rice, gardiane de taureau with the AOP bull beef, and fleur de sel from the salt pans

one of Provence's great markets sprawls the length of the ring boulevards — olives, saucisson d'Arles, tapenade, Camargue produce and cloth

a 4x4 or guided day into the delta

ride the salt marshes on a Camargue horse alongside the gardian cowboys who herd the bulls