Sunday, October 10, 2010

Arles #2

We were able to spend two days in Arles and really enjoyed it. On the first day we were able to visit most of the main tourist sites. We started at the Arles museum which was really interesting. It had a great history of the town and had these awesome dioramas of the roman structures that used to be erect in the town. There was a huge amphitheater, coliseum, forum, and circus Maximus. They had bits and pieces of the roman buildings on display but the dioramas were my fave. They even had a special exhibit where they showed all of these under water excavations from ship wrecks. They showed a mini video of the process which I really enjoyed as well. The majority of their findings were wine and water ceramic jugs and a sarcophagus.

Another tourist thing we did during the day was go on a Van Gogh walking tour. There were about ten marked locations where Van Gogh had painted. The city of Arles had even installed markers in the ground that you could follow to make sure you were going the right way. Pretty cool. I think we made it to all of them except two. One pathway we took was by the river which was really pretty except it totally stunk of dog poo!!! Apparently the peeps in Arles do not pick up the poo after their dogs. It was everywhere!!! The painting landmark we were going to see was a Starry Night. (not the starry night). Near the location there was some ruminates of a bridge. Kind of neat. Also near by was a group of old men in a park playing a game similar to bocci ball but on a smaller scale. We saw some men play it in Paris too so apparently it is very popular here.

Anyway, I did recognize most of the paintings that were featured on the walk. Yeah for all of my art history classes and for tuition money well spent! I only took one photo with my phone of one of the locations and it isn't the right angle of the building either. Sorry! It was so neat to be able to stand there and see the same view of van Gogh. I have never been able to do that with any artist before and I feel very fortunate to have ben able to do that with one of my faves.



After our hours of site seeing we were really hot and sweaty. (it is definitely more humid here than Paris!) Our hotel advertised it had a pool so John and I decided to check it out. It was a mini pool that was indoors and on the bottom level of the hotel kind of odd and kind of awesome. We had to pay extra to use it but it was well worth it and so refreshing! We even used the sauna for a bit but it made me feel clostrophbic. I now know I do not like to breath in warm air.

Before dinner we decided to have cappichinos since we didn't get ones at lunch. Guess who couldn't fall asleep that night?



Here are two photos from my dinner. (I am reposting them now that I have time to write). The first one is of my salad and the second one is of my desert.





That creme brûlée was the best I have ever had. I cannot believe how good it was and am mad it isn't that good in the US. Oh well.

- Posted using my iPhone

1 comment:

Sarah said...

I think you need to start making creme brulee at home. You can make it just like they do. Then invite me over.