Trips,Travels and Vacations: France

After a train ride through the Italian Riviera, the south of France and Monaco, we arrive in Nice that is not so nice around the train station esp when Europcar is closed for 1 1/2 hours after we arrive. After our 1 and 1/2 hours of people watching in the train station, we stand in line for the prerequisite red tape to get a car. It is a joy to have our own wheels. Every road sign is romance and elegance, Cannes, St Paul De Vence, Aix en Provence, Salon de Provence and finally the trusty GPS takes us to our townhouse in the old section of Arles. Rule one of travel never show up when it is raining and you are tired and everything looks grungy. We are convinced nothing will be open on the next day as it is Sunday so we find a grocery with meat and bread and eggs and wine so we are covered, only to return to the house and have the door handle fall off in our hand. The english speaking caretaker is around the corner and now for the next few days we carry the door handle with us as a version of the door key. It works and is part of the charm.

Sunday is a day of rest, four loads of wash. That would be very tiny loads. Two long walks around the town, now we are oriented. We are next to the major highway and right at the edge of the old town of Arles.

On a scale of 1 to 10 the house is 7. Old and well equipped and charming but if I had it to do over I would not select this locale today. We shall see if that changes. Arles is a bit more gritty than the picture perfect towns to the east but it is also more real. We shall see how we feel in a few more days. We are settled in and getting to know the neighbors. Today we went to the Camargue and while most guide books give it short shift we had a lovely day and a great lunch. We have the time to do some of the lesser sights and therefore get to have wonderful experiences.

Jon's favorite room and he has loved stocking it.

View of Ted and Linda's bedroom window from the patio.

Their bedroom. Beds are 10 inches off floor. Linda size.

Ste-Maries-de-la-Mer

Camargue is famous for black bulls, white horses, flamingoes, and fantastic birds. We saw all.

Sign outside the bullfight arena. They do both types of bullfights here. One where bull is not killed and the one where it is killed. The rest of France they only do the bull games but here it is considered part of their culture.

Baby duck

Local houses with thatched roofs that are designed to withstand the Mistral. The horrible winds of Provence.

The white horses of the region may have been here since ancient times.

The gypsies market and the huge population from North Africa bring in lots of color. Looks like Morocco.

A side comment:

Back in Arles as I am writing this post our neighbor just knocked on the door to see if we were the culprits that parked and blocked his entrance to his garage. Simoni does that sound familiar? Just like Milan where every time we came home someone was blocking the drive. I think I learned a few words in Italian that are new. Well not really. I have heard Diana use them before.

Amazing photo...oh all right...I took a photo of a postcard.

Different kinds of sel de mer

I did mention good lunch?

Jon and I think these are the best Moules ever.

Les Baux

Tuesday and more sunshine and everything is looking better. Our Garmin guided us smoothly to Les Baux, a ruin of a once mighty fortress on a hilltop. Every guide book says it is over run with tourists but worth seeing. Well the benefit of the first week in Oct and bad economy...not so over run. We drive almost to the door and it is all uphill from there but charming, yes touristy but the castle has amazing views and the valley is unusual. It is flat and then huge cathedrals of rock jut up almost from nowhere. Fascinating landscape and it is confined to this one valley. On the way back to Arles we stopped at Montmajour Abby. Massive old Romanesque Abby from the 12th century. Winding roads lined with plane trees are like a picture postcard ideal of Provence.

Jon loves the way they drive everywhere. Pull those side mirrors in.

This is the remains of the Marquis de Baux's home. That would be the Prince of Monaco.

War Machines

Battering Ram

This mighty castle was destroyed by the king of France. Didn't want the power it represented to go unchecked. Not a great idea to scare the king.

The Abbey Montmajour

A warm nutella crepe from a street stand had held off the hungeries so we decided to drive back to Arles and ditch the car and head out on foot. We found a wonderful sunny patio for lunch and voila! the food was as good as the setting. I had ravioli with a sauce of duck gizzard. That would be French Italian fusion and it was fabulous. Jon had a great salad and all is lovely. We explored more of the city and went down into the underground. There the tops of the arches the Romans built are exposed although they have not fully excavated so we walk along about 20 ft above the floor level. Then we explored at night and found the Cafe de Nuit(Cafe of the Night) location of one of Van Gogh's most famous paintings.

Arles obelisque from Roman times when it was a large Roman city.

Into the underground

Opps Front fender is crumpled. Not our car thank heavens.

Two remaining columns from Roman Forum

Van Goghs Cafe De Nuit

Good night all.

Today we are really getting settled into the slow pace of Provence. We head out to the Wednesday market which is really fascinating as there is a very large North African population of muslims here but all we have seen so far are men. On market day we see the women in full attire. There the feel of a Moroccan market with French goods. A woman in a habib is buying croissants for example. The goods are varied and the food is fantastic as could be expected. Then we scope out the extensive Roman ruins. There is always a funny feeling when walking on floors laid 2000 years ago. The Colosseum here was built in 4 AD and is still in use today. With some modifications it has more seats added and they are doing some restoration. It is the cities descision to make it a living site. They have full blown bullfights here and that is a point of huge controversy. All through Europe there are the remains of the fabulously engineered Roman buildings and waterworks. What an incredible world it must have been back then when it was all new and sparkling. Painted in bright colors and the citizens of Rome living with order and luxury, covering all of Europe and North Africa and Greece to Egypt. It is mind boggling to think about it.