I knew I had received an email asking would we meet somewhere, rather than being picked up, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I sent off a couple of emails quick smart, and we headed to the tourist office just in case that was where we should have been. And it was, and our guide Anne was there, but we found out that the other couple had cancelled, so we got a private tour.
The first stop was Arles, where Vincent van Gogh had lived and painted for more than a year, 1888-89. We walked for over an hour. Many of the places vanG painted have been identified, and are marked with a copy of the painting, and notes.
In the middle ages, the colosseum had been cleared of all its internal parts, and over 200 houses and other buildings had been built, making it a city within a city. They also added 4 towers on the top. The Roman theatre has been part demolished, but is still used for concerts etc.
There is also a good santon shop. These are handmade figures of village people in their traditional dress which started to be made during the Fr Revolution, when churches were demolished and nativities banned. They could put up collections of local village people, and get away with that.
We found more vanG sites,
bought some lunch, saw a wedding happening near the town hall,
didn't go near the markets, got hotter, and gradually made our way back to the car.
Then we drove into the Parc Naturel Regional de Camargue, which is the delta area of the Rhone River (our friend from Zermatt). Here they grow more fruit and vegetables, also rice, and have white horses and black bulls which have been part of the area for centuries. Some of the colosseums in the area are still used for bull fighting, with much protest. It is also the home, for 7-8mths of the year, of flamingos, who head to Africa for the winter. So we saw bulls, fed horses, but didn't see the flamingos, so had to pay to go to the local bird sanctuary where we hid in a hide.
Then we headed back home, and got into Avignon at 15:30, an hour late. We didn't go in the pool today.
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