Beyond Paris: Visit the French city Vincent van Gogh fell in love with

I'm leaning on the wrought-iron balcony of the Hotel Nord-Pinus, long-time hangout of bullfighters and the likes of Picasso, Cocteau and Piaf when they visited the Provencal town of Arles. To my right, is the yellow cafe immortalised by Vincent van Gogh's painting Cafe Terrace at Night, while a Roman temple facade is wedged, rather nonchalantly, into a corner of the hotel's exterior on the buzzy plane-tree-dappled Place du Forum. Directly below is a bronze sculpture of Provence's most famous native son, the poet Frederic Mistral, the first person to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (in 1904) for writing in a regional language, the almost extinct Provencal.

Ever since it was founded by Greek-Phoenician traders near the mouth of the Rhone River in the 6th century BCE, Arles has been a multicultural melting pot. After Julius Caesar made it the capital of Roman Provence in the first century CE, Arles spent the next three centuries as a pivotal trading hub between the Rhone Valley and the Mediterranean. Arles has also long been an entrance point for immigrants from North Africa while every May gypsies make a pilgrimage to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer in the nearby Camargue wetlands to honour the Black Madonna.

The Mediterranean climate is embodied in the lively food scene of this city at the epicentre of three rich agricultural regions ... the olive groves and vineyards of the hilly Alpilles to the north, the sheep farms on the alluvial Le Crau plain to the east, and the red rice and vegetable farms (not to mention the bulls, ducks, fish and clams) from the Camargue to the south.

The Roman arena and Roman theatre continue to be a part of daily life, with concerts, plays and bullfights still on the schedule. And while the past permeates the present, Arles is no museum piece. The city hosts Europe's largest annual photography festival, Les Rencontres d'Arles, with edgy exhibitions in galleries, gardens, cafes and shops. And the 10-hectare campus of LUMA Arles, a passion project of Roche pharmaceutical billionaire heiress Maja Hoffmann, has reimagined former railway workshops into an arts, design and environmental centre anchored by a shiny Frank Gehry tower. The architect describes it as a tribute to van Gogh's evocation of light. Some locals think it looks more like a crushed soft-drink can.

Bowls of shiny olives, fragrant lavender bunches, glistening fish from the Mediterranean, ripe melons and peaches are all on display at the Saturday-morning market, which stretches the length of the main boulevard. Behind the stalls is no ordinary antique carousel. Here, children can ride Camargue black bulls and white horses. At the nearby Arles Tourist Office, it's well worth booking a guide to show you around.

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As we explore the Roman Theatre, our guide Francois describes its perfect acoustics and details how it was used for Roman pantomimes and Greek-inspired comedy and tragedy as well as burlesque. At the nearby restored Roman arena, he brings to life the bullfights and gladiator spectacles that drew 20,000 spectators. And at the Place de la Republique, he reveals that the fourth-century obelisk was moved from the Roman circus where chariot racing took place outside the city walls. And, by way of explaining how Arles became a stronghold of Christianity in Roman Gaul, he shows us the cathedral built on the site of the temple to the Emperor cult, its grand archway resembling a triumphal Roman arch.

Later, we wander through the pedestrian-only streets to visit the Arlaten Museum, founded by Frederic Mistral to honour Provencal culture. A remarkable collection of Roman ruins is displayed in the lower courtyard of the former Gothic residence of a powerful local family which, after a period as a Jesuit boys school and prison, became the museum. Today, you'll discover the costumes and lifestyles of various Provencal cultures, including gypsies, as well as fascinating traditional games, cabinets of curiosity, Provencal Santon Christmas figurines, and the flamingos, bulls and white horses of the nearby Camargue. As a bonus, Arles native son, the flamboyant designer Christian Lacroix, created brightly coloured Provencal collages that adorn the multi-storey glass staircase.

Not all the creativity is in the museums, however. We spend the remainder of the afternoon exploring the labyrinth of narrow streets, their mint-green and smoky-blue shutters bathed in Provencal light, to discover artisanal boutiques and craft ateliers, making everything from jewellery, shoes and furniture to pastries, pots and ice cream.

Dinner is on the vine-draped candlelit terrace of Le Galoubet, where we feast on roasted sea bass with red rice, capers, black olives and pickled lemon washed down with a fruity Provencal red before returning to relax on the balmy Place du Forum near the van Gogh cafe to listen to buskers strumming guitars, Django Reinhardt style.

Next morning, we visit the Fondation Vincent van Gogh, a modern museum with a small rotating collection of his paintings as well as intriguing exhibitions of artists inspired by him. Arles Tourist Office offers a self-guided walking tour of the places he painted and we discover reproductions of his work along the Rhone, in the colonnaded garden of the Hotel-Dieu hospital, and the Langlois drawbridge outside the city.

We spend the afternoon at LUMA Arles. We enjoy lunch at the Drum Cafe, where guest chefs create whimsical dishes with local produce, before wandering around the Gehry Tower, with its arresting Olafur Eliasson Take Your Time mirror sculpture. More intriguing offerings are found in the transformed railway workshops dotted around the rewilded landscape. We discover a studio creating building materials out of salt, sunflower pulp, rice straw, olive pits and algae, and we're transfixed by the Dissonant Belonging exhibition of Palestinian photographer Ahlam Shibli, a LUMA artist in residence, who examines the concept of home in the diverse communities of Arles intellectuals, gypsies, Algerians, people with disability and the elderly.

But something our guide, Francois, said really captures the essence of Arles. He explained that van Gogh believed that the painter of the future would be a colourist as had never yet existed and his laser-like observation of the mauves and royal blues, absinthe tints, lemon yellows and brutal golds define this city of the ages basking under the intense Provencal sun. If you take the time, you'll still see them today.

Getting there: Arles is most easily accessed by train from Paris. The Marseille Provence international airport is 66 kilometres away.

Staying there: After undergoing extensive renovations, the Hotel Nord-Pinus will reopen in 2025. The nearby Hotel du Forum sports a swimming pool in a tranquil interior garden, rooms from $200. nord-pinus.com; hotelduforum.com

Explore more: arlestourisme.com

The writer was a guest of Arles Tourism.

Pictures: Arles Camargue Tourism