Black Diva and the Roman Theater of Orange

I don’t often show pictures of myself with celebrities, artists, winegrowers, chefs, politicians or other living icons that I meet in the course of my work, but that’s the best way to introduce the beautiful local Diva that I met the other day while in Orange, in the Vaucluse area of Provence.

I’d come to the western edge of Vaucluse for three days to visit the city of Avignon, the vineyards of Chateauneuf-du-Pape and the town of Orange. Before leaving on a trip like this I typically imagine that I’ll eventually write at least two texts:
– something practical about a subject that I’ve usually defined in advance, in this case a round-up of some of the nicer hotels in Avignon, and
– something that I come upon by following my nose, with or without some guidance from local tourist officials or others in the know.

In relation to the second article, I thought upon leaving Paris that I might compare my experiences in and impressions of Avignon and Orange with those described by Henry James in “A Little Tour in France,” which the American (and eventually British) author wrote in 1883, recounting his six weeks of travel of the previous year. I may well get around to that, but in case I don’t I take this opportunity to recommend the book, particularly for travelers who enjoy meandering around France and for bloggers, journalists and other writers interested in learning some of the basics of good travel writing: observe, research, experience, encounter, favor well-informed opinions over clichéd commentary.

Upon my arrival in Avignon, however, I forgot about Henry James’s little tour when, sitting in a café waiting for my first appointment of the day, I read in Vaucluse Matin, the local newspaper, that an Avignonnais had won the national title as best coffee roaster. I added him to my list of people to meet while in Avignon, and by the end of the day I’d decided to base an article on individuals who are cheerfully in tune with the workspace they inhabit.

This is not that article.

Instead, I’d like to introduce you to the individual that fit the bill for that theme in Orange: the cat Diva.

On the way in I’d spotted her splayed on the ticket counter and on the way out I found her again contemplating life by the illustrated gladiator books. A woman behind the counter introduced me to Diva. She told me that Diva had adopted the Roman Theater of Orange as her backyard about eight years ago. Her indoor home is the ticket office/boutique at the entrance and exit to the theater.

I learned much else that afternoon during a tour with Rose Papalia, an excellent guide with the Orange Tourist Office: about the Théâtre Antique and Les Chorégies, Orange’s spectacular summer festival of opera and lyrical music, about the museum and its fragments of a Roman cadaster, and about the arch on the opposite end of the Roman town. The Roman wall in Orange is the only remaining Roman theater wall in existence in Europe. I might have written at length all that, fascinating as it is, but this Diva isn’t mentioned in the audio-guide that you can listen to when visiting the theater.

Individuals such as Diva aren’t rare, but because we tend to plan trips in terms of sights and meals we all too frequently ignore them. Which leads me now to regret that I didn’t go speak with the person sweeping the stage by the 2000-year-old theater wall where Tosca, Aida, Carmen, Macbeth and so many others have died in the past 40 years alone.

But I did meet up with a young backpacker: me, 30 years ago.

You see, I had been to Orange before while backpacking through Europe on some ridiculously low number of dollars a day. The number stayed especially low that particular day in Orange because I had managed to see the Roman Theater without paying the entrance fee by climbing up the hill behind the hemicycle and standing on the edge of the cliff for a glimpse.

Looking up from where the town’s top Roman officials would have sat, here is where I stood.

© 2012, Gary Lee Kraut