Wednesday June 5 Arles all day!

I think it was the sound of the trash trucks that awoke us this morning!  We are in the CITY and our room faces a main street--even if it's only 10 feet wide!  Breakfast was a buffet on the ground floor. We met the Sextons there at 8:30, chatted with Alain, Hotel Muette owner while we cooked our eggs dropped individually into "an egg boiling machine!"  Hard to explain. We ate on the terrace, one of the amenities of this quirky place!  Dried fruit, yogurt, croissants and baguettes completed our buffet--delicious and filling!

Our first adventure of the day was to find the local market. This was the first Wednesday of the month so we were in luck. The usual Wed. market would be double in size!  And it was huge!!  We never even reached the end of it!  There was clothing, jewelry, household goods, pottery, carved wooden objects and utensils, shoes!! We even saw mattresses for sale! The food items ranged from produce to meat to olives to cheese to herbs to fish--too much to name!!  We bought some gifts and picnic supplies and did some amazing people-watching. So many things and people to see!  

Then we picnicked along the Rhone, sitting right on the stone ramparts!!  The weather has been beautiful--mid 70s.  We had to move from our first location because Bea got splattered with....well, you can imagine!  We sat along further on the ancient stones and had bread, salami, cheese, tomatoes and cherries. What more could we ask for? Walked a little further and had a coffee. Then we wandered around the "old city" enjoying the sights. 

At Place de la Republique, we saw the Hotel de Ville with the French flag blowing in the wind, a very old and tall obelisque and then we strolled over to what we think was the Opera under reconstruction. After finding the gate open we went into what might have been practice rooms before we were shooed out!  Before leaving the Place, we toured the  Cloitre St Trophine, a basilica built in the 15th century;  not as impressive as Chartres but older. 

We followed our noses to the  Amphitheater, the stadium/arena built by The Romans when the they were overtaking Gaul. Up in the South Tower, the views of the city were spectacular. So many abodes, some even with patios/terraces and one had a bathing beauty posing for us. Anyway, it was amazing to sit in the bleachers gazing at all of the Romanesque arches through which the Arlesiens entered, thrilled to the sights of man fighting beast and exited. Weird how similar this arena is to the design of all the sports' stadiums we see today!

After a short respite back at the hotel, we had pre-dinner cocktails in our room and then  went to a nearby restaurant, Le Seize, for dinner. We ate outside on the patio, the ambiance was perfect, but some of us thought there was a little ordinariness to the food.  Bea and I had an excellent spring salad with peas and arugula, Tom had a chicken dish, Bea had fish and Peter and I had bull's meat stew. I liked it because of its name. Again, back at the hotel about 10 and in bed. We walked the whole "old city" today!