A WOW end to the day

Sunday 30^th March

Well, we’ve had an interesting sort of day today. We decided we needed an early start because we had a lot we wanted to do today. So, I was up at 6.45 and we were at breakfast at 7.30, only to find that daylight saving had started and it was in fact 8.30. As they say – the best laid plans…etc.

On the road not too late and the roads were quiet as we headed to Nimes. Here we wanted to see the Arena – from 1^st century. Parked the car underground and of course went the wrong way up on street level. I asked a lady where to find the arena and she told us about another sight to see – tres interesante she said – and then she even turned back the way she had come and walked with us until she could show us the temple. As I said yesterday, we have found the French to be very helpful, nothing that a smile won’t fix!

At the temple we saw a film that described the building of Nimes from 50BC through until 100AD.

Next stop the arena which is a full arena (gladiator/bull fighting ring). These Romans must have had great legs – the steps are huge and I was feeling it.

Gladiators?

Lunch – mussels for Rob and Calamari Provence style for me. Very nice.

 

Calamari Provence style

A huge bowl of mussels

From there we headed to Arles where Rob wanted to do a walk that highlighted Van Gogh moments in Arles. Here was where Lonely Planet led us astray as it said the tourist bureau was open to 4.45 and it closed at 1. We are going to have to remember not to make too many plans for a Sunday as we have run into this sort of problem before. So, no walk, but a nice coffee and cake instead. Only one photo in Arles -

The old-fashioned pissoir

The WOW part of the day.

It was too early to head back to the hotel so we decided we had just enough time to get to Les Baux de Provence and see the Carrieres and Lumieres. This was an absolute high for the trip. This place is an old limestone quarry and they project art images onto the limestone walls along with a soundtrack. The exhibition on at the moment is Gustave Klimt. We were both in total awe – it was jaw dropping and seemed to bring the paintings to life. It was a fantastic end to the day after the disappointment of missing the Van Gogh stuff.

Heading away from the show we took a road up over the hills and got some great shots back to the castle that we hope to visit later in the week.

Les Baux castle

It was a late night back to town so we bought pizza and a bottle of wine at the pizza van in the main street - 12 Euros. Very nice dinner.