Sunday September 16th, 2018

Last night ended up being fun with a large “Patrimony” day parade celebrating the rice harvest. This area is at the northern end of the Camargue, a wetland area famous for its wild horses. The parade had a fair number of extremely large tractors of different brands pulling various floats. Apparently there is another event starting at 10:00am this morning, but I can tell where it is and when it is, but I’m not sure exactly what it is. Arles feels very different from Avignon, even though only a 18 minute train ride away. Roman ruins predominate here, and the history with Van Gogh and Picasso are proudly displayed. The Patrimony days mean that all sites and museum entrances are free, so I’ve had my fill. The local market yesterday, which apparently is one of the biggest regionally was pretty spectacular. The main drag was lined 4 booths wide for about a mile, with everything from food to clothing etc. I got a little cheese and sausage as a snack before finding an excellent “plat du jour” at a place next to the coliseum, see pictures in the last entry, squid and prawns combo. I had forgotten that the Camino has a route starting here in Arles and heading to Santiago. As long as I’m here, I’m going to walk the sections through town and out the other side. It’s on my map, but not very well labeled on the ground. If you plan to visit Arles, I could imagine that it would get very very hot in the summer here. In mid September, it is still quite warm mid day. One other interesting thing, the Rhone river, quite large at the point that it bends through Arles, flows through the edge of the old town. It appears there is a walking path closer down to the river, but it’s basically all concrete berms etc, meaning there is no use, other than river boat docking made of the riverfront, no cafes, no lawns, all concrete. Rick Steves puts it well in his guidebook by saying that Arles turns its back on the Rhone.

Could I have a vacation from being Gluten Free? Hotel de la Musee breakfast.

Plat du Jour from Brasserie L’Aficion.