Roman Orange

Roman Orange                   by Paul Howlett

When I was driving down in the south of France, I decided to have a look at the Roman amphitheatre in Orange.  I turned my car left, at the outer suburbs of Marseilles and headed on up the road - north.

I was very interested in the fact that the Roman theatre is still in use to this day.

I was a little disappointed to see a modern ticket office stuck rather incongruently in the middle of the Roman temple area.

I did see, after entering the Roman Amphitheatre that it was being used for a scheduled rock concert that night by the English band The Cure!  There were people on the stage conduction sound checks with all modern equipment that looked strangely out of place to me, in a 2000 year old building.

Here, I see a statue on the back wall of the stage, which is probably 1800 – 2000 years old and on the right is a modern bank of stage lights and equipment.   I am sure the local French young people in Orange would not think this was strange, but to an Australian this just looks weird.  (GRIN).

Australians are just not used to seeing buildings that would normally be in a museum still being used for their original purpose!

On reflection, I think it is great that the Romans built a stage and building that is still in use for its original purpose!