In the footsteps of Van Gogh

SOMETHING about the light in Arles makes the city special. Whether it's the morning sun bouncing off the rooftops on ancient cobblestone streets, golden fields of sunflowers blooming in early summer or moonlight reflecting off the surface of the Rhone River at night, the effect is simply mesmerising.

For centuries, famous visitors and lesser mortals have been drawn to this walled Roman town of 50,000 in southern France, about a half-hour drive from Avig…