Arles

 

Jeanne and I went down for breakfast at 7 am when they opened.  We were the first ones there.  

Our room.  It was a very nice spacious room.  Very comfortable.  A funny balcony like our Paris hotel.  But this one the chairs and table all fit.  The one challenging thing in this room is the step up to the bathroom and a big step up to the toilet.

Looking out the window in the morning.

The plan was to meet Sharon and Kris at 9:30 am.  We decided to look around the amphitheater first.  

It is still being used for a variety of events.

We got back to the hotel to meet up with Sharon and Kris.  We headed out on a Van Gogh search.

The first stop was the Foundation Vincent Van Gogh

We got there a few minutes before it opened.

This was the list of all the artists who had pieces here.

What this Foundation has on show right now is a lot of imitations of Van Gogh's style.  

The original banana duct taped to the wall.  They have to change the banana every 3 days.  So the question is: Is this still the original?

There is a lot of art which has been inspired by the banana 

Jeanne and I whizzed through pretty fast.  There were a few pieces that I liked.

The garden which inspired some of his work. It was the L'espace Dieu & garden.

We were looking for some of the panels that show the painting that was inspired by the location.  This was at the hotel Dieu which is where van Gogh was hospitalized. The panels are scattered all over the town. There is a map available if you want to see them all.

The painting

We saw this panel but the garden it was in was closed.  I took this through the fence.

We walked to the Frank Gehry's tower, LUMA Arles.

We went to the lobby where it was free.  

By then it was time to head back to the hotel.  We had gotten a text from Steve that we would be going to the Pont du Gard at 2 pm.  We needed to have some lunch before that.

I saw this bench with a full glass of water on it.  I wonder if this was someone's rain gauge of how much it had rained the day before.

We picked this Spanish Tapas place.  It was very close to the hotel.

What a yummy meal: chickpea fritters, manchego cheese, vegetable tempura, tortilla (I call frittata) ... and ugly prawns with eye balls,   I did not like to even look at the prawns.  Kris very carefully prepared one for me. 

I don't like the "fisheye" look with my camera.

It was a fun restaurant.

We met at 2 pm in the lobby and walked to the bus. It was about a 1 1/2 hour drive.  We parked near the visitor center.  There is a nice museum

This is an olive tree which has been around since Roman times.  We learned that olive trees are called eternal trees because they never die naturally.  They can, however, be killed.

Wow.  We had about 1 1/2 hours to wander around.

Jeanne and I walked over it to the other side to get that view.

Jeanne went back because she wanted to get to the museum. I had seen a path going up which I wanted to explore.

At the top I could see where the water was supposed to go. Nathan, you would have been proud of me.

I took this through the fence.

Very cool.

I walked back and down the hill on the other side to get a different view of the Pont du Gard

Back to the visitor center.  With all of my hiking I ran out of time and could not get to the museum.  Jeanne was very impressed with it and was glad that she got there.

We headed back to the hotel.  We made one stop at another one of Van Gogh's panel stops.

We had a 7:30 pm dinner reservation at Le Mistral.  We got back to the hotel in time to have a cocktail.

We had hoped to sit outside but all of the tables were full.

We then walked to Le Mistral.  Argh!! It was closed!!!  How could that be?  I had even received a confirmation of our reservation.  Oh well.  The Cafe  Bistrot du Pitchounet restaurant right next to it got our business instead.

With the wine they brought this little ice container

Container with cute tongs.

Jeanne and I split a meal.  I ordered the appetizer of deviled eggs and she ordered the fish and chips.  It worked perfectly.  Sharon and Kris each ordered the deviled eggs and the rock fish soup.

Our meal was very good.

We walked back to the hotel.  A walking day with 19,617 steps.