My Day in Provence
Trip Start
Jun 14, 2009
1
10
30
Trip End
Jul 14, 2009
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Arles,
Provence,
France
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
On our next road trip to Antibes we stop in the town of Arles (pronounced Arl) to tour Roman Ruins and check out where van Gogh was most prolific in his paintings. Ya know how St. Paul had Peanuts characters and Park City had Moose, well Arles has easels in 17 locations that were the subject of his paintings. We did not see all of them, but did see two, one of the famous café painting and one of a courtyard with flowers. It was also an ancient Roman city that has forums and ruins, There is an amphitheatre that has the oldest columns and seats for concerts and a big rampart wall for parking under. And they have that wind that drove Van Gogh so crazy he cut off his ear. Those same winds caused us stress too, but we didn’t feel the need to cut off an ear or any other appendage.
Traffic-The wind isn’t the only thing in this part of France that’s crazy, the traffic is too. We went through endless roundabouts, which are a great and efficient invention, but also confusing, with cars going every which way and jumping in whenever they want to and then there are those scooters, they rule the road and seem to make up their own rules. Steve has done a great job driving through these crazy areas, while I mainly drive on the superhighways. As for the superhighways they’re fast, 130 kph, but you pay for it in tolls.
We arrived at our campsite L’Eden in Biot, right next to Antibes. We rented a mobile home or ”caravan” for 3 nights. Most of the people in the camp own their own trailers, or rent for at least one week and most of the people having been coming to L’Eden for years and seem to be retired and are also mostly from England or the Netherlands. We met Hazel and John right next to us who were renting for 3 weeks and were from England. Then on our left were Margot and Cor from Holland. We had to provide our own sheets, towels, and soaps. Dishes and blankets and pillows were provided. The girls had their own room (closet size) and Steve and I had our own room too. The one butt kitchen had a small refrigerator and a microwave and a stove and oven. This part of France feels like Florida, with the palm trees and bright flowers and the smell of the ocean. We are looking forward to unpacking for three nights, getting to know the area, and heading to the beach!
Comments
Provence
I'll have to send you my copy of Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence. I'm sure you will appreciate it a lot. Fun book. In fact he has two more-Toujours Provence and Encore Provence - he couldn't stay away.
Hopefully you can and will be back in Park City in July. Hope you enjoyed the beach. I'm sure you are missing France and the French already. Lots of Love X X X O O O .
Bonjour!
Great to read your entries... have fun in Antibes - hope you escape wind and traffic there for awhile. Enjoy the beach! Can't wait to see all your pics.
Love, Lin and Rachel
Re: Provence
We do have the First Peter Mayle book and Sandy hasn't read it yet, but is now inspired to.
caravan
Robbie wants to reside in a trailer like that. I love your blog--definitely helping us al live vicariously--thanks for the great stories. Have been trying to figure out who the writer is-- Debbie and I think it's Sandy with some Steve in there.
Re: caravan
We love the Picasso icon and we've all been adding to the blog, Steve writes most of the food spots and adds to the rest, Annalisa has also been writing, so it's a group effort. We can picture Robbie hanging out in one of those trailers and biking and hiking etc. during the day. Not a bad life.