SEE TO BELIEVE
At the crossroads between the calcareous massif of the Alpilles, the salted and unsalted water of the Carmague and the extensive natural park of the Luberon. Tarascon is a symbol of Provence. A legendary town, with the castle of King Renato of Anjou, guarding the Rodano, and house of Tartarino, with its two guardian lions, its beauty needs to be seen to be believed.

AMONGST CHURCHES, CHAPELS AND ABBEYS
The Royal Collegiate of Santa Marta is located in the vicinity of the feudal castle of King Renato, which is considered one of the most beautiful in France. The building with its imposing Gothic bell-tower, still bears traces of the Romanesque church built in the 12th century, such as the 4th century crypt in which the sarcophagus of Santa Marta is conserved. But it is especially those works realized in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries which give this church its exceptional beauty, reminiscent of the purest Southern Gothic style. The chapel of St. Gabriele, is a perfect example of Provençal Romanesque art, a combination of harmony and beauty. Made famous by the writer Alphonse Daudet in his book “Lettres de mon Moulin”, the Abbey of Saint Michel de Frigolet consists of two parts. A medieval monastic complex, dated between the 12th and 13th centuries consisting of three buildings of Romanesque origin, the convent church, the cloister and the pilgrim church, as well as the part built in the mid.19th century in Neo-Gothic style.

THE TARASCA IN US
Once upon a time, on the banks of the Rodano, in a forest between Avignon and Arles, lived a dragon who was half animal and half fish, larger than an ox, longer than a horse, with very sharp teeth and large wings. The Leggenda aurea (Golden Legend) of Jacopo da Varagine, states that the monster reached the lands of the “Galati” by sea, and that his parents were the “Leviatano”, a water snake, and Onagro, who burnt everything that he touched, as in all good legends, he ate men, women and children. The populace therefore asked Marta, who came from the sea with the three Marys to confront it. Santa Marta succeeded in overcoming the beast, by sprinkling it with holy water and displaying the cross, and by wrapping her belt, symbol of vital energy, around its tail. Then taking the beast to a village, near to where it was stoned. In order to conquer the Dragon within us, the inhabitants of Tarascona, have since 1474, been parading the streets of the town, during the last week of June, in an impressive Tarasca event, with masses, bonfires and Carmague races. In 1854 a group of Provençal scholars, including Aubanel and Romanilha, founded the Felibrige movement, the Avignon school which represented a commitment to Provençal renaissance. The most famous personality being that of its founders, Fredéric Mistral (1830-1914) who developed his poetic creations, in a mythical Provençal setting, in which the inhabitants are idealized, describing the settings, the characters and the traditions in his living language. He published his great poem called Mirèio in 1859, an epic work, for which he was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1904. This work was then followed by Calendal, an epic novel set in coastal Provence, while Lou pouèmo dòu Rose, was the name of his monumental dictionary, Tresor dóu Felibrige, the fruit of his linguistic and ethnographic studies “You must have seen a star engraved on the door of the castle… I have not seen it, but I am certain, o Calendal, that it shines light on your village on dark nights. This was how the Lords of Baus were acclaimed by Mistral in his famous work entitled “Calendal”. The star being part of the emblem of the house of the Princes of Baus, the leading noble family of Provence, representing proud eagles who scale the peaks of fortune. Legend has it that their ancestors included Baldassarre, one of the Three Kings; according to legend one of their ancestors came from Ethiopia to settle in the Alpilles, and cultivated the rocky land with aromatic herbs and ardent blood. Since the time of Louis XIII, the king of France, the Grimaldi Princes of Monaco, boast the title of Marquises of Baux.