Arles - June 1, 2013

It is rather interesting how my high school french is coming back (that was a long time ago) as I need to try and explain things.  Pretty neat.  Although now being in our 4th country all with a different language, we are slipping up with the odd gracias (thank you in Spanish) or Bom Dia (good day in Portuguese).  Jan had a great suggestion and we try to start each conversation in the native language with, for example, in French, "parlez un petit Francais" (I only speak a little French) and the response we get is completely different than when we were asking "Do you speak English?" to which the answer was always NO (finding out later that they could speak a little or a lot).

We started our day with a great breakfast at the hotel.  As we left the hotel, the winds were gale force but it was warm so the jackets were quickly taken off.  It was interesting that as our day progressed and depending on which street or square you were on - it was either completely calm or gale force - no in between.

There is a market in town every Saturday and we went to explore.  Wow.  If you have been to the St. Albert Farmer's Market, I am estimating this market to be at least 5 times bigger.  Everything for sale from used clothing to the freshest vegetables, fruits, cheeses, etc.  We wandered through the various stalls and bought cheese, olives, bread, sausage, strawberries, cherries, peas and nectarines - all for our lunch later.

We then walked to the Museum of History which unfortunately was a bit of a disappointment.  It is supposedly an excellent museum on the history and development of Arles, but everything was in French - to this point all museums had an English audio guide or printed info by exhibits.  So we wandered through pretty quickly.

As we left we started to wander through the labyrinth of streets (so fun) and came across a little square and had coffee.

We then wandered some more and came across Republic Square which was a great place to park ourselves on some steps, people watch and have our lunch.  We stopped at Soleileils for gelato.

Dinner at Restaurant Pizzeria La Mama (Excellent) and then to bed.  Bonsoir.

Dog in Fountain at Republic Square

Having Coffee

Republic Square