We woke up this morning knowing one thing was certain – today HAD to be better than yesterday. After a French/English phone call that went miles better than I had feared (don’t they always?), we set off for our first town of the day – Arles.
Arles is the largest city in France, but you wouldn’t necessarily feel that way while there (I know I didn’t!). The first thing that struck me about this city was its simply beauty – the shady squares, colourful sun-baked houses (Arles boasts 300 days of sunshine a year) and the Rhône river running right through it. Our first stop was breakfast! We found a cute little cafe and enjoyed our first official French croissant of the trip while the waited entertained us with his polite and strange mannerisms and we speculated over the matador memorabilia all over the walls. We were about to leave the cafe when we were stopped by a lady asking us where in Australia we were from (is is that obvious 😉 ?). She proceeded to give us lots of little tips of places to go and things to see in the South of France (and some driving tips too I might add, though I am not entirely sure we found the driving tips as useful). I do think travelling really makes you notice the kindness of strangers.
We did not have that much time to explore Arles bigger tourist sites, like the Roman amphitheatre Les Arènes, however we did manage to pop into the garden where Vincent Van Gogh painted The Asylum Garden at Arles, 1889.
We rushed back to Saint Remy to meet the owner of the AirBnB. Turns out, both the apartment and the owner were lovely! He had arranged for the door to be fixed and a new key to be made, as well as offering us to stay another night so that we would still have two nights like originally planned. We were thrilled. After we got our bags and unpacked/settled in a tad (made some phone calls back home so that everyone knew we had someplace to sleep) we headed off for lunch. The restaurant we had hoped to go to was closed (looks like we had found a dinner option at least) so we ate at the next one alone which had HUGE portions. We enjoyed a salad, pasta and croque monsieur before heading back on the road to Avignon – another beautiful walled city with a rich culture and history that is also set on the Rhône river.
For 70-odd years of the early 1300s, the Provençal town of Avignon served as the centre of the Roman Catholic world, and though its stint as the seat of papal power only lasted a few decades, it’s been left with an impressive legacy of ecclesiastical architecture, most notably the soaring, World Heritage–listed fortress-cum-palace known as the Palais des Papes. This was our first stop (after we found a car park.. parking in these places is becoming somewhat of a laughing matter).
After soaking up the history in the cavernous halls, chapels and antechambers (with the aid of our audioguides, as most of the rooms were largely bare) we explored the towns boutique-lined streets and leafy squares, making out way to the Pont d’Avignon. Anyone remember the children’s song ‘Sur le pont d’Avignon’ (On the Bridge of Avignon)?
It’s official name is Pont St-Bénezet who, we learnt with our included audio guides, had three saintly visions urging him to build a bridge across the Rhône. Completed initially in 1185, it unfortunately had a tendency to collapse every time the Rhône flooded and was abandoned in the 1600s.
Lastly we decided to head to Château des Baux – one of the recommendations from the Australian lady we had met earlier in the day. Even though the castle itself was closed by the time we arrived, we still had enough time to explore the medieval village of Les Baux de Provence and watch an incredible sunset with panoramic views over the Alpilles.
After a stunning photo shoot, that due to the height of it all had Roisin with her stomach in her mouth, we headed back to Saint Remy for a delicious dinner at Gus Restaurant (and an early night 😉 ).
stefanysees 