Provence, Day 5
It was probably around 5am this morning that I felt a sting on my left ankle. It quickly became so itchy that I couldn’t go back to sleep. I got up to check on it and saw that it was a little swollen. Chris was previously a little annoyed that our towels weren’t changed after 3 nights and that the garbage wasn’t cleaned out, which seemed tolerable, until this. Since we couldn’t go back to sleep we decided to head out to check out other hotels. We rung the bells on four hotels of which only one had a free room, which wasn’t available until after noon. We then considered moving base to Arles, so I started calling some hotels, most of which didn’t have 24 hr reception. At the end we felt confident that we should be able to find a hotel when we get to Arles, so we went back to our hotel, packed up and headed to the train station.
When we were planning for the trip we’d actually considered staying at Arles as our base. But we eventually chose Avignon because it is a more convenient transportation hub. When we arrived at Arles, I was so happy with our spontaneous move. We both liked the feel of Arles much better than Avignon. The walk from the train station to the town wall was short. We walked into the first hotel we saw inside the wall. It had a free room, at even a better price than our last hotel. I didn’t feel like looking around to compare, so we decided to settle there. We dropped our backpacks at the reception and went out to check out Arles’ market.
Of all the markets we’ve been to, this one felt the most "local" - we didn’t see many tourists around at all. After a short stroll we walked back inside the city wall to the back of the Roman Arena. We sat down at the nearby Place Voltaire to have breakfast before going inside the Arena. It’s funny that of all things, the first thing that came to my mind upon entering the arena is the movie Ronin. The place was very quiet with few visitors. It’d be nice to see what the atmosphere is like when the place is filled with spectators.
We continued our sightseeing to the classical theatre nearby, which allowed us to
better appreciate how incredible it is for the theatre in Orange to remain standing as it does today, when most other similar structures are left only with mere columns, like this one in Arles. We then walked by the Jardin d’Ete, where Van Gogh spent many days on his paintings, onto the St. Trophime church at the large Place de la Republique square. The intricate carvings on the church facade illustrated biblical stories to the illiterates of the medieval world. I went inside just before the church closed for lunch while Chris stayed outside to eavesdrop on a tour guide explaining the stories.
As most of the sights in town were now closed for lunch, we decided to go to a local supermarket to buy lunch before going back to the hotel, as our room was to be ready by now. We went out after lunch only for a short while, visiting the Roman bath and Place du Forum, before returning to the hotel for a 2+ hr nap, as both of us woke up so early in the morning. We woke up after 7pm, just in time to catch a few blue-sky photos of the arena at dusk.
