Arles - Part 1. They're not kidding about this Mistral thing

"The mistral is a strong, cold and northwesterly wind that blows from southern France into the Gulf of Lion in the northern Mediterranean, with sustained winds often exceeding forty kilometers an hour, and sometimes reaching one hundred kilometers an hour"

I am now experiencing this.  The wind has been blowing for three days.  And I mean, constantly.  Like, there's no lull whatsover.  Sometimes it's a little harder, sometimes a little softer, but it really doesn't stop at any point.  The sun is out and it's still warm, so it's not bad, per se.  It does, however, add a whole other level to my workout when I go running!

My host mom is a busy stay-at-home/ work-from-home mom.  Pretty often, she'll drop me off to explore a town as she goes to an appointment, and I'm getting to see a lot of the Provence region this way.  We were in Arles recently, which is chock full of Roman ruins.  All over the place!  This region was inhabited by the Romans, among other civilizations, and has bits of ruins everywhere, in various states of .. well.. ruin.  Some charge you to see them and give tours, some are just sitting around in fields.  Either way though, preserving their history is very important to people here.

Darling little street in Arles.  But really, they're
all this adorable.

When we arrived in Arles, I got dropped off at the Tourism Office, which is always a great place to start a visit to a new city, I've learned.  I take brochures of anything and everything that catches my eye - restaurants, excursions, festivals, and most especially, anything explaining the history of buildings or the area, because knowing what you're looking at makes it SOO much more interesting!  It's happened in the past that I've found out, after the fact, that I passed a really cool building or location that I was completely oblivious to the significance of.  That's best avoided by researching the area, even if that just means, asking someone to tell you about the area.  Tourism offices are also a great place to find bus schedules (if that's how I'm traveling), and I always always pick up a city map!  It seems like there's usually someone there who speaks at least a little English, so if I need directions, or ideas of things to do, I can get some help on that also.  Even if I already have an idea of what I want to visit, I'll still ask about the best things to see in town.  They know.  It's their job to know.  And until you ask, you don't even know what it is you don't know.

 This lovely man was playing jazz at 

the Place de la Republique.  Somehow, 

good music finds me everywhere I go.

In Arles (as in most places, probably), the Office de Tourisme is located in the city center, within walking distance to most of the major sites.  I got a map, which had the ruins helpfully marked with big pictures (Arles is a big tourist stop), asked about where the main shopping was to be found, and off I went.

Cloister of St. Trophime

I started out at in the very center of town at the Place de la Republique, which was conveniently marked with an obelisk, city hall, and cathedral, all located around a square with a fountain.  Hard to miss.  I marveled, as I always do in the presence of old European architecture, at the countless number of painstaking hours that must have gone into the creation of the statues and ornate decorations, of which these are amazing examples, the cathedral and cloister of St. Trophime especially.  Definitely a labor of love.

Main entrance to the cathedral
of St. Trophime

Before leaving the tourism office, I had mapped out a route to get to the sites that looked the most interesting to me, while also avoiding having to retrace my steps.  However, the wind was blowing pretty hard, which, as it turns out, makes it kind of hard to read a map.  I don't want to say I was lost, because you can't get lost if you don't REALLY mind where you're going.  ..right?  Besides, the ruins were all within about an 8 block radius of each other, so it's not like you could really ever be LOST lost. The streets just didn't all go through like you'd hope, or necessarily go in straight lines.  So I MEANDERED, purposefully of course, through some back streets.  A lot of back streets.  Retracing of steps definitely happened.  I stopped in a parfumerie for a while to smell pretty things, looked at the shops, and almost bought a picture of a field of the red flowers that are so typical here.  (I really like buying pictures of flowers, I've discovered).  The meandering also tends to lead me to much pastry-eating.  You really can't walk more than 2 or 3 minutes in any direction without finding a bakery or patisserie in any city in France.  It's like Starbucks in Seattle.  Luckily, eating pastries is one of my favorite hobbies.

I eventually found, I mean, arrived at, the site of the old Roman baths - the Thermes de Constantin.  I was buying a ticket at the entrance and the man told me I could buy a ticket for this site for 3€, or a month pass for 9 of the sites in Arles for 9€.  Let me do some math to see if it's worth it, no wait, never mind, yes of course I'll buy that.

Looking across the Rhone to the far bank, where you can
see the remains of twin lion figures guarding the entrance
to the bridge (that no longer exists) that was the
gateway into Arles in Roman times.

The baths were a couple of blocks from the city wall that marked the perimeter of the city in Roman times, along the Rhone river.  I couldn't be that close to water and not go look at it, so after the baths, I walked the few blocks to the wall, and climbed up some steps to the top.  Holy cow, was the wind strong up there!  Remember that mistral that's been blowing?  It was crazy!  My hair had been whipping around all day anyway, DESPITE being tied back, and I'd been walking through narrow streets which were a little more protected from the wind.  But up here on the top of the wall, it was pretty open.  My phone was almost blowing out of my hands as I took pictures!  I leaned into the wind at one point and tried to fall forward... And didn't.  Just to give you an idea of how strong it was.

Standing on top of the old city wall along the Rhone river, with wind at a bazillion kph (if I'm converting
that from mph correctly)

At this point I was right behind the Musée Réattu. I'm not usually big on museums, but this was one of the places covered by my Awesome Pass, so what the hey, I went it.  It was modern design in an old building, which is always interesting, not very big, and had modern and Renaissance pieces by artists I'd never heard of.  But the coolest thing was a letter on display that had been written by Vincent Van Gogh!  Van Gogh lived in and and loved Provence, and you can buy prints and magnets and postcards of his work at all the souvenir shops.  I have also visited the Langlois Bridge, just outside of Arles, renamed the Van Gogh bridge since he painted it about five times, and it makes a better tourist attraction that way.  I've also been to the mental hospital near St. Remy de Provence, where he also spent quite a bit of time.

Painting of bridge

Actual bridge

Next, on to the arena! Time was running short; 2 and a half hours flies when you're trekking around a city on foot.  The arena was built in 90 AD!  It's pretty well preserved, and of course it's been restored over the years, but the most amazing thing to me was that it's still in use!  There are bullfights held here, as well as other events.  Inside, it has those little signs on the walls that tell you which direction to go to find your seat.  Full stadium status.  I love that it's still in use.  It's been standing for over 1,000 years, why NOT take care of it and keep on using it?  It was built to last forever and it really just might.  Standing at the top of the tower in front and gazing over the city to the river became one of my favorite things to do in Arles.  It's really peaceful, (except for all the tourists filing past you and taking pictures, but you know, you make your own space), and offers you a moment to let your mind wander and contemplate things.  Like life, the universe, and why those little orange roofs look so darn cute.

The view from the top of the Arena to the Rhone is worth the climb

Arles has a long and fascinating history, with lots more to see than I could possibly have covered in 2 hours.  Another trip was in order.  Stay tuned for what else I discovered here!

Gladiators dueling it out for some school kids on tour