Auberge du Mas de la Feniere Arles

... the wind to walk across the bridge in the evening to Avignon for dinner. This morning we went on a wine tour (I know, but it is too hard to resist) around the Cotes du Rhone with Phillipe, a very competant and helpful local guide. We ended up at Chateauneuf du Pape drinking wonderful reds which has been a wine hightlight of the trip - the village has the most amazing view of Provence ...

We have enjoyed many good meals in France, but two stand out from the vast number in restaurants that tend to offer a menu with generic dishes (well prepared though), rather than distinctive cuisine. This could relate to our budget of course.

Nimes
We arrived in Nimes in the late afternoon and booked into the Hotel des Tuileries, a lovely hotel in the old part of town very close to the Arena. The host, Andrew, recommended a ...

... and i haven't been in touch, but i'm here now.....i think i will just need to have jason drive me there before i loose my nerve....

so i was told at dinner that the ******* had plateaued off today as i did not feed him any salad. i think thats a bit of a misnomer, as plateau seems to imply level off to normal levels, but in this case, its like level off at 80% instead of 120%. so basically, i am destined to a life ...

... of star fruit. It was lovely. Mine looked a little like breakfast cereal, but it was wonderful: chocolate raviolis in a white chocolate sauce with flambeed banana ice cream served on the side. The raviolis were garnished with petit strawberry and a yellow raspberry. It was all just perfect and a superb choice for our big dinner out. Recommend highly! At $27 Euro each, it was a steal compared to every place around it.

Believe me you don't want the story but here are a few photos and videos of what was a wonderful adventure for the most part.

The bull running was a random and free event - just next to lovely beach. Camargue horses are breathtakingly beautiful in the wild.

Unfortunately no photos of characterful and cultural city of Arles because only took the camera out one day - the day we went to The Camargue obviously.

... br>I first go to the coliseum. It is about the same size and quality of the one in Nimes. Inside the modern seating still covers the old stone benches but it is not as obtrusive as was in Nimes. There was just a bullfight the night before so this may be temporary. Just down the road is the old theater. Just a bit is left of it. The town has a better feel to me than Nimes. It feels more like an old town.

This week Arles has a series of ...

... of stumbling across a mini Colosseum was in the restaurant. Chuong noticed the woman sitting a the table near us dipping her bread in her glass of red wine and then chowing down on it. Of course we gave it a crack and I have to say it tastes pretty good! We spent the next day wandering around Arles checking out their local sites. The church in the main the square has more relics (bones) than you can poke a stick at and you could even make out which body ...

... the waiter was judging our French accents as we ordered dessert and mine was perfect. He gave Ginger a little grief and when he brought out the cake, he laid down everyone's spoons but stuck Ginger's right in the middle of her cake. He was the waiter that looked like Matt LeBlanc from the show Friends. We spent the rest of the night at the Pub. Nothing out of the ordinary before bed.

... redeem my ticket. Smooth move, Leslie. I said forget the ticket and went to meet the girls for lunch. We ate at the same Tunisian place as before. We decided to try the Tunisian pastries so we bought 5 of them (they were rather small) and split them. One kind of tasted like suntan lotion so we gave that to Mark. Haha. After lunch, Meredith and I started and finished our photography ...

... picture him saying that. We also went over the courses that were available for the summer. I'm taking Immigrant communities in France and the History of Photography. They meet at 9 and at 10:30 in the morning. Then we have lunch and then I have the afternoon free. Perfect. After the meeting we had dinner vouchers for Cuisine de Comptoire. It was a cute little restaurant that served pizza like meals. A group of us ordered a ...