Lonely Planet Provence & Southeast France Road Trips by Lonely Planet

Author:Lonely Planet
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788685740
Publisher: Lonely Planet Global Limited
Published: 2019-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

Orange

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Two thousand years ago, Orange – then known as Arausio – was one of the major settlements in this sunbaked corner of the Gallo-Roman empire. To cement its status, townsfolk constructed an impressive series of structures, including the town’s mighty ancient theatre. Once the largest in Gaul, it still steals the show and is rightly (along with Orange’s triumphal arch) a World Heritage Site. Unfortunately, despite its massive scale, the limestone structure is surprisingly fragile, and a monumental eight-year restoration project is currently under way to preserve it for the future. Expect scaffolding until at least 2024.

The modern town itself isn’t quite as starry – in fact, in places it looks positively unloved – so there’s no real reason to spend the night unless you have to.

1 Sights

Théâtre AntiqueHistoric Site

(Ancient Roman Theatre; 04 90 51 17 60; www.theatre-antique.com; rue Madeleine Roch; adult/child €9.50/7.50; 9am-7pm Jun-Aug, to 6pm Apr, May & Sep, 9.30am-5.30pm Mar & Oct, 9.30am-4.30pm Nov-Feb) Orange’s monumental, Unesco-protected Roman theatre is unquestionably one of France’s most impressive Roman sights. It’s one of only three intact Roman theatres left in the world (the others are in Syria and Turkey), and its sheer size is awe-inspiring: designed to seat 10,000 spectators, its stage wall reaches 37m high, 103m wide and 1.8m thick. Little wonder that Louis XIV called it ‘the finest wall in my kingdom’.

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