A half day in Arles

On 15 May, we visited Arles with Kate. Our first stop before lunch was Place de la Republique, home to an obelisk, the hôtel de ville, a church, Église St Trophieme and serveral other atractive buildings, but sadly, no greenery.

Ready for lunch, we enquired at a patisserie as to whether they sold sandwiches (ie filled baguettes).  They did not, but the shopkeeper came out from behind the counter, past several other waiting customers, out into the street, and gave us detailed directions, all in French with accompanying hand gestures, to the best spot to buy sandwiches.  Through the passageway, around to the right, up the hill, past the cafe with the yellow parasols, there, sure enough, was a great sandwich shop.

Now ready to eat, we walked to jardin d’été.  Not the perfect place to picnic, it was on a slope and not perfectly manicured.  But it did provide a view of the ruins of the Roman Theatre, which we were happy to view from outside the fence (Andrew having moments earlier rubbished the cheap tourists taking photos from outside the fence).  We found some grass to perch for a quick lunch, and Xavier took the opportunity to practice one of his favourite European sports - pigeon chasing.

After lunch we strolled around the famous Roman Arena,

before our attention was drawn to an eye-catching red "sculpture" hanging over the entrance to a church. 

We wandered inside, and found an interesting art exhibition.

We also took a look at a few of the galleries between the Arena and the Place de la Republic, with one having a mosaic tribute to Van Gogh.



Before leaving Arles, we returned to the patisserie where the kind lady had been so helpful with directions, and bought some desserts to take home.

I guess we we were somewhat underwhelmed by our half day in Arles, but it was nice to again revisit a place we had been in 1996, and confirm how much you forget over 18 years!