Michel de Notredame is better known as Nostradamus. He was born in this town in 1503, and after studying medicine became a very skillful and innovative doctor, but he is best remembered for his predictions. His book “Centuries” contained nine hundred predictions for the world, written in verse. The followers of Nostradamus have made some real life events fit the predictions such as the Fire of London and Pasteur’s discovery of microscopic germs
Nearest Airports – Avignon, Nîmes, and Marseille. TGV stops at Avignon, half an hour by car from St.Remy.
What to see and do in St Remy
A cluster of narrow streets forms the old part of St Remy, encircled by a road and parts of the 14th Century defensive wall. It is easy to explore its picturesque squares with fountains and plane trees.
Sit outside when of the many cafes, browse the boutiques and art galleries and visit the Musee des Alpilles, housed in a renaissance mansion in Place Flavier. Inside you’ll discover local traditions and folklore including Nostradamus’ prophecies (see below).
Close by in rue Estrine is the Van Gogh Interpretation Centre, hosting art shows and has a permanent exhibition of van Gogh reproductions and letters (there are no original van Gogh paintings).
Just outside St Remy to the south you can visit the asylum van Gogh checked into in 1889, at the monastery of St-Paul-de-Mausole. This has a pretty cloister and an air of great calm. There is a reconstruction of what van Gogh’s room would have looked like, and a small lavender field to the back named ‘Van Gogh’s field’.
Continue on this road south from St Remy and you cut through the Alpilles range to reach Les Baux de Provence, another must-see destination...