Trading on a name, Arles's stylish Café van Gogh lures both jazz lovers and those who visit the city to pay homage to the café's namesake. Vincent van Gogh lived in Arles for a year until, after an argument with fellow artist Paul Gauguin, he sliced off part of his own ear. He spent much of the next year in a mental hospital in nearby St.-Rémy, where he painted some of his most moving works, including 'Irises' and 'Starry Night,' before his suicide in 1890.

—From "Essence of Provence," September 1995, National Geographic magazine