With a population of 50,000, one would believe that it is a municipality among many others. And yet Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône) holds the record for being the largest in continental France. Its area of 758.9 km² is almost equal to that of New York (783.8 km²). “Its population is distributed between the central urban area and eleven villages, the most distant of which is located almost 40 km from the city center,” we read on the website of the municipality. Arles extends to the mouth of the Rhone into the Mediterranean, a sign of its immensity, and it takes almost an hour to reach its wild beaches (Piémanson, Beauduc, etc.) from its symbolic Roman amphitheater.
