European Vacation Part III: Arles

Well, here we are, en route to Arles where we stayed for one day and one night on our way to Barcelona. Luckily, Sal loves to drive and he and Dave entertained each other in the front seats for the entire trip. It was so interesting to see everything change as we drove closer and closer to Arles. It was about a 6.5 hour drive, south-south east from Luxembourg. 

Ian, trying not to get too bored, listening to his tunes.

Our lovely little hotel, Hotel du Musee, which was very close to the Roman ruins and museum. 

The courtyard of the hotel. It was too chilly to eat out there but I could see that the huge jasmin vines were budding and about a week away from blooming. Being there when they bloom would be heavenly.

Carly in front of  posters announcing various museums, shows, sights of the area.

Some classic Provencal architecture. 

The roman amphitheater, which now serves as a bull fight ring. The 'nice' thing about bullfighting in that region is that they don't kill the bulls, nor do they injure them. The bull"fighters" try to grab flags or scarves that are attached to the bull's horns. Then the bulls go back to the meadows and chill until the next fight - at least that is what I remember reading. The bulls are raised in the nearby Camargue area - more on that later. The poster here is announcing the first bullfight of the season, Easter weekend-hence the easter egg motif. 

Walking around the arena. 

View from one of the towers in the amphitheater. 

Here you can see the Rhone River and the waves formed from the wicked Mistral winds that were blowing that day. They were seriously strong. 
 

View from inside the tower, to the Rhone in the distance. 

The pigeons took shelter inside the holes in the walls. 

Here's Ian, trying not to blow away.

Really, the light IS different there. Everything has a pearly glow to it. Hard to explain but it's really striking. 

The group at the small roman forum. 

Chunks and hunks of architectural details. I really liked it in this spot. I felt like i was among friends - there was serious soul here.

Can you find Dave?

Oh, the light, the LIGHT!

Arlesian teens, hanging out by the 19th century church. Doing what American teens do, only in front of an elegant,  really old church. 

Sal about to enjoy a very lovely provencal meal. 

Sal, getting a kick out of himself, pretending he's a pirate. Sal felt that the world "arles" sounding like "argh" and wouldn't it be fun to talk like a pirate for hours, and hours, and hours? He said things like "Instead of the stairs, let's take the ARLES-e-vator!", etc. Dave immediately joined in, much to the chagrin of the rest of us. 

We went to the Saturday market which has a huge variety of goods–everything from baskets, clothing, breads, honey, soaps, olives, cheeses, meats, knives, textiles, etc. 

This man designed this very cool bag which is made out of rice or grain bags. 
Freesh fish!

Some spanish influence in the local cuisine - paella!

Octopi!

Olives, of course lots of olives were on sale!
Me and a huge assortment of napkins - hard to decide on which ones to get. I also got some for my friend Alison.

Did I mention that the light is really different there???

I love how this lady looks. She's from the 1950's, isn't she?

Cicadas were a popular motif, in decorative details, food labels, this cafe signage, etc. 

Here is a shot of Fleur de Sel, which is hand-harvested sea salt, and it's the top layer of the salt before it sinks to the bottom of large salt pans. It can be from Brittany, Noirmoutier, and Camargue. This one is from the Camargue, which is next to Arles, and which we drove through on our way to Barcelona. I just learned about Fleur de Sel. It's good to sprinkle on top of food just before serving, like fresh herbs. Sometimes it can have a slight pink tint to it because of a micro algae that can be present in the salt marshes. On this jar you can see the pink flamingos which are common to the Camargue, during mating season, which is Feb-April +/-. This is the end of my food and flamingo lesson.

We had a hard time finding the Camargue park- several bets were made on which turns we should take and most of them involved a prize of whether or not "pirate-speak" would continue. Luckily I won one of the bets so we were "pirate-free" for a couple of hours. 

We were almost out of the park, not having seen any flamingos, when all of a sudden there they were! And in the distance are Camargue bulls, which are the ones they use for bullfighting in S. France. They're smaller than the bulls used in Spain. Spanish bullfighting bulls are also raised there. Honestly, I couldn't tell which ones these were.