We decided to get out of Arles on Tuesday so we hopped in our little VW car and headed north about 30 minutes to Pont du Gard to see a little Roman aqueduct built in about 19 B.C. Rick Steves says it is "one of the most remarkable surviving Roman ruins anywhere." We concur.
Since both Howard and I love the cheesy kitchy stuff, we decided to make the drive to Stes-Maries-de-la-Mer, where according to Rick, it is sort of the Coney Island of France. Les Saintes Maries is a little beach town on the Mediterranean and it pretty much lived up to the cheesy description (it even had a bull ring next to the sea). It was a nice diversion . . .
Next on our out-of-Arles adventure was the Camargue, a wild natural area of France, the delta of the Rhone River. Lots of marshland and wetlands (and mosquitoes). It is possible to see wild white horses (we saw a couple), wild boar (none), and flamingos in the wild (YES!). There were lots of stables for horseback riding, too. We saw wild flamingos at the end of our drive and you can see them, too, in the second to the last photo here -- they look like little white specks as we left our powerful lens in our suitcase in the room (bad, bad . . .).
Out and about in Arles at the end of the day.
3 comments:
Hi Dayna,
What an amazing thing: to see the actual sidewalk cafe where the painting was done! It's strange when we see images in books and 'know' they're real/exist, but to compare back and forth is so cool. Have a wonderful day.
Your pictures are so beautiful...my favorite in this one is:
The pic of you sipping your coffee with that magnificent wall in the background. The colors are so beautiful and you fit in so well in the environment...
I may be slowly falling in love with France as I follow you. I never knew what the hype was....I'm beginning to get the idea!
my my to see you with that wonderful bread and coffee. I can almost smell and hear the noise of the little towns.
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