Becks Invade Arles (1/15/09)

I just remembered that I have not posted about our day trip to Arles back in January! Apologies to the readers of this blog. Chris and I have been pretty busy so far this year, and I seem to be on Facebook and Ravelry more than our blog. Will be better about that though.

Arles is about an hour train trip from Marseille, and is a wonderful little town with a rich Roman history.

The highlights of our trip were the ruins of the Roman Amphitheater, Roman theater, the Allycamps, and the Roman baths. I took almost 300 pictures in one day because I loved the town so much!

Here are the links to the photos...
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=3saykfvv.2v0941yb&x=0&h=1&y=pa1jxt&localeid=en_US

Second set of photos here...
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=3saykfvv.28mue1gj&x=0&h=1&y=-o4us3&localeid=en_US

Third set...
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=3saykfvv.3sektcyr&x=0&h=1&y=dj2ew0&localeid=en_US

Fourth set...
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=3saykfvv.bcx6qeeb&x=0&h=1&y=-7e7hop&localeid=en_US

Last set...
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=3saykfvv.bzzeimar&x=0&h=1&y=-ajimv1&localeid=en_US

(If a link doesn't work, just copy and paste the entire link address into your browser. I know some of the previous posts have had bad links, so you can do the same thing with those.)

Chris & I chose a good time to visit Arles, as it is low tourist season. We were the only one's walking around the sites! We were freezing, but it was well worth it.

The Roman Amphitheater and Roman theater are still being used, and are currently being renovated. Apparently, Wednesday nights in the summer, they have bull fights (some bloodless and some not) at the amphitheater. Not something I care to see. When walking inside the amphitheater, we both noticed how weird the energy there is. Just thinking about animals and humans dying violently there was upsetting.

The town of Arles was very cute. Lots of stores and cafes, none of which were open until after 5pm. I randomly found the yarn store (I have a sense for finding these things), so we stopped in there.

The Allycamps was probably my favorite thing in Arles. It has been painted by Van Gogh and others. When Chris first told me about the place, I thought it would be an old Roman cemetary. I was in for quite a surprise, well, we both were, when we actually got there! It was a large path with empty cement caskets on either side! The path led to an old church, that was even creepier. The place would be great to visit on Halloween (if only the French celebrated Halloween).

We are looking forward to going back to Arles sometime soon. We would like to explore the nature preserve nearby called the Camargue, where you can find wild bulls, white horses, and even flamingos! Definitely something to do once it gets warmer.