This was our first visit to this town, which is 20km South of Avignon in a minor mountain range called the Alpilles. Being so close to a relatively major city of Avignon, there had to be a reason for the town's existence and in St. Remy's case, it was the centre of the thistle trade. The thistle has medicinal uses, but was also used to disentangle wool so that it could be weaved. This trade finally died up in the later part of last century, which left the town to look at itself and as an attractive town to reinvent itself as a travel and tourist destination. Van Gogh lived and painted many of his pictures here.

The medeival town is not very big and one could briskly walk from end to end in 10 minutes. As usual, we arrived in the late morning in time for lunch. Unfortunately, since the tourism scene is pretty much dead in the winter, most restaurants were closed, but we did find a great burger joint, where Pauline commented that she had enjoyed the best hamburger of our trip so far. 

After lunch we walked the narrow streets, with their distinctive decorative feature and visited the Museum of Alpilles, a small museum  in an imposing building (hôtels particuliers) celebrating the town and its surrounding area.