Today was a little more laid back than some of our other sightseeing days. We had a delicious breakfast on the terrace this morning and met a very nice couple from the other Vancouver (B.C.) and discovered we were both Rick Steves' "disciples." They described a trip they had taken last year to Spain and it made me realize that Rich has never been to Spain and maybe that should be our next European destination.
After breakfast we headed into the town of Arles to wander through their open air market and then see the sights of this ancient Roman town. The market was HUGE, seemingly going on and on for blocks. Not only did we see the requisite flowers, spices, cheeses, breads, and meats, but also linens of all kinds, clothes, shoes, and even mattresses! (I still like the Antibes market better).
We then made our way to the city's ancient history museum where they had descriptions of their Roman ruins and models of what the buildings looked like in Riman times. We wandered to the ruins themselves: the circus maximus, forum (of which there's only one column left, and the square is now occupied by numerous cafes), the arena (not as big as Rome's colosseum, but built along the same lines and in better condition), and the classical theatre.
Since there wasn't much else in Arles that really interested us, we came back to our B&B @ 5:00 PM and spent the rest of the afternoon in and around the pool on the property. We had the entire place to ourselves and it was so relaxing.
As I'm writing this now from our room, the "mistral" winds seem to be picking up. These are the same winds that supposedly drove the young Vincent van Gogh crazy. Hopefully, they'll just bring us a nice cross breeze through our room.
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