Day 15

Day 15:

Saturday, April 4, 2009: Today, nine of us went to Arles! It is a small town on the Rhone about a 20-minute train ride from Avignon.

Originally, I had planned to go skiing in the Alps my first free weekend, but I did not feel like spending 12 hours round-trip on a train. There was also the money factor; I had the money but after spending quite a bit in Paris for spring break, I decided to take a break – something my Dad will like to read.

So seven in our group decided that they would be going to Arles for the day and Lance and I decided the night before that we would join them. Van Gogh lived and worked in Arles for 15 months, creating many of his most famous paintings.

I met Lance at the train station at 11:45am and we bought tickets for the 12:20pm train at 8E apiece. We found the train and were the only ones on it. Granted, we were early and it was Saturday, but where was everyone else? We stood around on the platform before boarding. Right before the train left, the girls got on at the last minute.

It was a gorgeous day; the sun was out and there was not a cloud in the sky. When we arrived in Arles, we walked from the train station to the center of town. Arles is much smaller than Avignon but I think I preferred it. The day would show that it was friendlier and more fun than its neighbor. In a way, Arles felt a little like Athens (Ohio).

Van Gogh had a house on the road from the train station into town, but the Nazis bombed it during World War II and there is nothing to see. We arrived with no plans of what we were going to do but it was really nice to not feel pressured into running all over the city. We were able to take it all in slowly and at our own pace.

Because the group was so large, it was naturally going to split. There was no way that everyone was going to be happy as such a large group. I ended up being with Lance, Zoe, and Melissa. We found a spot overlooking the town where we took some pictures before leaving the city walls and exploring an old cemetery. Afterwards, we wandered around some more. There is a big open air market every Saturday on the main road but it was over at noon and we only got to see the cleanup.

We found the public gardens that Van Gogh loved and walked through town some more, making our way towards the Rhone. We stopped at a little Moroccan store filled with authentic gifts. We tried on shoes and looked around and kept walking. We found the Rhone and sat beside it to rest. We decided to wander back to the center of town and eat a late lunch. I knew that I would have dinner waiting for me when I returned home so we only needed something to hold us over until then. And so we had paninis in the street as we walked back to the center of town to the Roman Arena and met up with everyone else.

We hung out for a long time on the steps of the Arena before splitting again. The other group decided that they wanted to find a place for dinner; we chose to find a grocery store at which we would buy wine and drink in the public gardens like Van Gogh once had.

We relaxed in the gardens for about an hour and a half until they closed then we headed back to meet up with everyone else. Tonight was the first night of a carnival alongside the Rhone and as the sun went down, we decided to play there to kill time before our train home.

But the carnival was closed. So we loitered and made our way to the train station. After we arrived home, Melissa and I went to Lance’s for some drinks before returning home for the night.

(Google.)