Arles

August 27, 2015

I spent just a few hours in Arles, and I went to see sites related to the major tourist draws, i.e. Van Gogh and Roman ruins.  (There is more Van Gogh material in my previous blog, leeannshere.blogspot.com, under "A Day Trip to Auvers-sur-Oise".)

The trip to Arles was pretty easy, since the central Avignon train station (not the TVG station) was just a few minutes' walk from my hotel, and I was able to buy my ticket from the machine in the lobby rather than standing in line.  (It helps to have a chip-and-PIN credit card.)  Then I saw a friendly cat not far from the train station in Arles! S/he eventually made a detour into an apartment complex, so I'm hoping that s/he had a home there.

Here is the carousel near the tourist information center (which is a ways from the train station).  From what I have seen, France does carousels well:

Here is a nice little street and cafe:

And here is a street with suspended umbrellas!

I then made my way to one of the Van Gogh-related sites, i.e. the hospital where he stayed while being treated for depression.  It did have a nice garden and was painted in cheerful colors, as the plaque bearing a painting by the artist illustrates:

I then proceeded to the ruins of the Roman theater, which, like the arena shown further below, dates to the first century B.C.  There was actually a performance going on inside (though it doesn't really have an inside):

And here is the arena:

The third photo was taken from inside, after I paid to get in.

The following is my attempt at manually stitching together two photos of the interior (I got very strange results when I tried to use Photoshop's automated stitching):

I then made my way back to the train station, which is very close to the river (the same river that goes through Avignon, i.e. the Rhone).  I was pleased to see these two lions guarding the river:

And here are the noble backsides of their counterparts on the other side!  (Another bridge ruin, it appears, though not as famous as the one in Avignon):

Then it was back to Avignon to prepare for my trip back to Paris the following morning, which again went pretty smoothly.  (I did try to see if I could change my TGV ticket to the upper level, but I gave up on that when the agent gave me the first eye-roll that I have gotten in France upon confessing that I didn't understand clearly what they had just said.  So, that transaction was over.  I think, in any case, I would have had to pay extra to change my seat.)

More adventures in Paris to follow... a bientot !