Les-Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer

The town has an official population of less than 3,000 people for much of the year but when it swells to almost 80,000 in May and through the summer holidays, it can become a tourist trap.  The Gypsy tradition is the most interesting and the most controversial: if the Gypsies first arrived in France in the 15th century, how did they come to worship Sara the Black as their patron saint?  Sara was never conferred with sainthood by the Catholic Church but that does not matter to the Gypsies -- the Gitans, the Roma, the Sinti, the Manouches – for Sara the Black is their inspiration. Below is the medieval fortified church in the town and an aerial view.

Van Gogh painted here in 1888 while visiting from Arles. Below are View of Saintes-Maries (in the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands) and Fishing Boats on the Beach.

Top photo: Rinina25 & Twice25; second photo: Jean-Louis Vandevivère.