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Location Date Paris 1343775600 Reims 1343689200 Marseille 1343343600 Aix-En-Provence 
1343257200 -
Location Date Thu, 26 July 2012 1343297280 Wed, 25 July 2012 1343239440 Tue, 24 July 2012 1343147460 Mon, 23 July 2012
1343030580 Sun, 22 July 2012 1342989420 Sat, 21 July 2012 1342902360
Monday 23 July - Provence - 30C.
We set off this morning in our hire car along the Tollway to Arles following a recommendation from the owner of our accommodation. Unfortunately we came to a traffic-jam induced standstill some 13km short of Arles. After 15 mins and moving nowhere we reversed back up the emergency lane to a service exit (following the example set by many other French drivers) and made a quick getaway.
Our car is a convertible Renault, so once we got onto the country lanes, we pulled over, put the top down and and traveled through some beautiful tree-lined country avenues on the way into Arles. The scenery was very pretty, the roads uncrowded and we parked next to the town information centre and got some great help on what to do and see on our short visit.
We found a lovely town which had a sporting arena for Romans from the 1st century BC - the Coliseum - which now holds bull 'races' which is a sport where the bulls chase the fighters around the ring and the bulls are not killed at the end – quite civilised - although the bulls still get a few things stuck in them to help keep their interest up in the chase .....
From here we went to a town called Le Baux which is a series of ruins dating from roman times to the present day built on top of a hill. had some great shops and the roman ruins on top of the hill. We wandered around the ruins in awe of the constructions that had taken place and were amazed at the spectacular scenery from the top of the hill where the ruins remained. It was a very large area where they used catapults to fight the enemy on approach - reputedly able to hurl large stones 1.8km. The ground was covered in white stone pebbles and once again a lot of the steps were made from marble that had become very slippery.
Our final stop was St Remy but it was so late in the day the entry to the main ruins in town had closed so we only had a view of a couple of monuments at the start of the Glanum - an area of roman remains built around a 'sacred' spring that reputedly had healing powers.
We set off for the hour-long drive home around 7pm and were lucky to find shops open to get some dinner. A very pleasant evening sitting outside eating bread and cheeses and sharing a few convivial glasses of wine.
We set off this morning in our hire car along the Tollway to Arles following a recommendation from the owner of our accommodation. Unfortunately we came to a traffic-jam induced standstill some 13km short of Arles. After 15 mins and moving nowhere we reversed back up the emergency lane to a service exit (following the example set by many other French drivers) and made a quick getaway.
Our car is a convertible Renault, so once we got onto the country lanes, we pulled over, put the top down and and traveled through some beautiful tree-lined country avenues on the way into Arles. The scenery was very pretty, the roads uncrowded and we parked next to the town information centre and got some great help on what to do and see on our short visit.
We found a lovely town which had a sporting arena for Romans from the 1st century BC - the Coliseum - which now holds bull 'races' which is a sport where the bulls chase the fighters around the ring and the bulls are not killed at the end – quite civilised - although the bulls still get a few things stuck in them to help keep their interest up in the chase .....
From here we went to a town called Le Baux which is a series of ruins dating from roman times to the present day built on top of a hill. had some great shops and the roman ruins on top of the hill. We wandered around the ruins in awe of the constructions that had taken place and were amazed at the spectacular scenery from the top of the hill where the ruins remained. It was a very large area where they used catapults to fight the enemy on approach - reputedly able to hurl large stones 1.8km. The ground was covered in white stone pebbles and once again a lot of the steps were made from marble that had become very slippery.
Our final stop was St Remy but it was so late in the day the entry to the main ruins in town had closed so we only had a view of a couple of monuments at the start of the Glanum - an area of roman remains built around a 'sacred' spring that reputedly had healing powers.
We set off for the hour-long drive home around 7pm and were lucky to find shops open to get some dinner. A very pleasant evening sitting outside eating bread and cheeses and sharing a few convivial glasses of wine.
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