Since my first extensive visit to the Camargue in the South of France in 2008, I have developed a love of Arles and its region. This definitely has to do with its beautiful nature, authenticity, tradition and strong relationship with art. For so long, it has been a place where great artists from Vincent van Gogh, Gauguin, Picasso, Cocteau, Cézanne, Lucien Clergue to Peter Lindbergh, Francois Halard and many others today have found inspiration and produced work. You feel a great new energy, and new creative people are coming to the city to settle down. When visiting the Camargue I always stay in Florian de Colmont’s amazing Mas de Cacharel with its great history and tradition. In Arles I used to frequent and stay at the iconic Grand Hotel Nord-Pinus but now I have discovered a new contender just the other side of the Nord-Pinus and Place du Forum, right in the middle of Arles. Patron of the arts, Maja Hoffmann, bought and recently renovated and reopened the Hotel L’Arlatan. I had known the place before as a regular 3-star hotel but I arrived when the hotel had only been open for four days following three years of intensive work, Hoffmann had given Cuban-American artist Jorge Prado carte blanche to transform the place into a haven of “lightness and joy” and I couldn’t believe my eyes. When you enter the hotel you are confronted by 6,000 square metres of mosaic: a gigantic explosion of colour, light and contemporary design. Prado has produced more than 1,300 pieces of furniture, ranging from rocking chairs, wooden tables and wardrobes to lamps and chandeliers. Each of the 36 rooms and every doorway is a unique work of art, while the garden and the swimming pool offer a peaceful retreat in the antique city of Arles. The hotel and Hoffmann’s other key project, the Luma Arles Art Centre, undoubtedly put Arles seriously back on the art map.

Copyright 2018 Mart Engelen