On the Monday morning, the town woke up with the crowd and the traffic. After being in the French world for two days, we felt encouraged to try out the local restaurant for breakfast. We ended up running to escape from the big laughs behind us. We probably looked so silly by trying to speak two French words we know and hoping people would speak English to us or at least understand our body languages. It was embarrassing but it was also so fun to do something silly like a tourist. People here actually are pretty friendly and indulgent to tourists. For example, a store owner asked us to try a type of berry before we paid just because she was afraid we wouldn’t like it. We finally got our breakfast and some supplies from a nearby supermarket.
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| Old Town gates |
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| River Rhone |
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| Patron Saint of Arles? |
It took us a while to find ‘Espace
of Van Gogh’ – used to be a mental hospital where Van Gogh was locked
after cutting off his ear. It is a bright yellow building with a big
courtyard in the middle.It is now a tourist site for people to memorize this great artist who had never been able to sell his paintings when he was alive. I recently watched a movie, 'Lust for Life', that tells a brief story about this artist. Even though Van Gogh didn't get recognized until he past away, he was so lucky to receive a life time support from his brother, Theo. If you want to keep going with more Van Gogh sites, you may go to St Remy, where is only 18 miles away from Arles.
I like the gift shops inside the Espace
Van Gogh. Besides the painter related products, there were many delicate
decoration items, even the fridge magnets were special and beautiful. A place to shop for family and friends.
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| Espace Van Gogh |
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| Espace Van Gogh |
We picked a café by the arena for lunch. While we were scanning the French menu with an IPhone app Word Lens that instantly translates the French into English word by word on the screen of the phone, the owner came over and handed us an English menu! How nice! I would definitely appreciate the idea of the visual translator but I think there is long way to go before you can really rely on it. Also keep in mind that many restaurants in French don't have a paper menu. The App probably won't work for the menu on the blackboard. We were not sure whether the crepe we ordered is considered as authentic French taste because of the other funny American/Asian beverages on the menu. At least the food was good and fresh and it was so nice to have the great view of the arena.
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| Crepe |
Arles is listed as the UNESCO world heritage site so you don't want to miss these ancient Roman buildings - the list from wikipeida.org.
We didn't get to see the Ramparts and Exedra. If you are really into the details of all these accient architectures/ruins, you could spend days here. I think Arles is a unique town that really keeps its heritage well. Even with all the tourists, I could still feel the peace everywhere in the town!
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| Republic Square |
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| Ruins of Thermes of Constantine |
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| Ruins of Thermes of Constantine |
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| Drawing of original Thermes of Constantine |
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| Roman Theater |
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Church of St. Trophime
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My original plan was to go to Nimes for Arena of Nimes - the second largest Roman arean, then Pont du Gard for Roman aqueduct bridge then stay in Avignon by bus. I changed my mind after we got to Arles. The reason was we like Arles and would like to spend more time and we didn’t feel like beating ourselves up from running among the attractions within a short amount of the time. I did prepare the bus schedule for the trip. The bus number from Arles to Nimes is C30, Nimes to Pont Du Gard is B21 and Pont Du Gard to Avignon is A15. The schedule makes a day trip among these three places feasible.
It is time to leave for our next stop - Avignon by train. The
train station is only 5 minute walking distance from the hotel. We got
there
earlier than the schedule because it would be our first time travelling
by train in France. BTW, the train time table came with the EURAIL pass
is something you want to keep with you all the time although some of the private run routes/schedules are not listed. There are two main railway companies
in France, SNCF and TGV(mostly are high speed trains with less stops in between). You can take both
at many stations but there are exceptions. Do check when you plan your trip. Our
destination in Avignon is the SNCF station in old town, where is close
to most of the attractions. The TGV station is a bit
away from the old town. Just to be safe, we paid extra 9 Euros to
reserve the seat on TGV train from Avignon to Lyon for two days later.
We also validated our EURAIL pass here so we could start using it for
our train travel. A Canadian traveler at the station
was nice to explain the validation process for us. Not complicated but
it could be a bit confusing for first timer. It wasn't difficult to
communicate with the station clerks either.
This is a very useful website for travelling in France.
My original plan was to go to Nimes for Arena of Nimes - the second largest Roman arean, then Pont du Gard for Roman aqueduct bridge then stay in Avignon by bus. I changed my mind after we got to Arles. The reason was we like Arles and would like to spend more time and we didn’t feel like beating ourselves up from running among the attractions within a short amount of the time. I did prepare the bus schedule for the trip. The bus number from Arles to Nimes is C30, Nimes to Pont Du Gard is B21 and Pont Du Gard to Avignon is A15. The schedule makes a day trip among these three places feasible.
It is time to leave for our next stop - Avignon by train. The
train station is only 5 minute walking distance from the hotel. We got
there
earlier than the schedule because it would be our first time travelling
by train in France. BTW, the train time table came with the EURAIL pass
is something you want to keep with you all the time although some of the private run routes/schedules are not listed. There are two main railway companies
in France, SNCF and TGV(mostly are high speed trains with less stops in between). You can take both
at many stations but there are exceptions. Do check when you plan your trip. Our
destination in Avignon is the SNCF station in old town, where is close
to most of the attractions. The TGV station is a bit
away from the old town. Just to be safe, we paid extra 9 Euros to
reserve the seat on TGV train from Avignon to Lyon for two days later.
We also validated our EURAIL pass here so we could start using it for
our train travel. A Canadian traveler at the station
was nice to explain the validation process for us. Not complicated but
it could be a bit confusing for first timer. It wasn't difficult to
communicate with the station clerks either. 
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