Breakfast is an extra in our budget but nice hotel, so we pre-ordered for 11 euro the savory breakfast that gets served at our table. It includes a boiled or fried egg, fresh grapefruit or orange juice, some nice artisan rolls/breads, croissant, two types of cheese, gourmet jams, butter, yoghurt and fruit compote, and of course tea and coffee. It was very nice and more than adequate in size – so much so that I made a takeaway lunch out of the roll and cheese part as I had more than sufficient. One of the jams was apricot and lavender which was very nice and Provençal.
We got to the information centre in comfortable time to join our Safari 4×4 small tour to the les Alpilles region of Provence. The Alpines (Al -peens) is essentially a small range of hills about 30 minutes from Arles as the crow flies. Our 4hr tour would take us first to an old aqueduct, then to the sanitarium that Van Gough was a patient at, to the high point of the Alpines near Le Beux a hill top town, then back to town. Our tour guide was a lovely expat Texan called Lauren who had come over 12 years ago to finish her history degree and work on a ranch – as she is a horse lady. She met her husband at this bull farm, got married and has a family now; jokingly she said her mother said if she wanted to marry a cow boy she could have done that in Texas. We were also lucky to have only two other fellow passengers – a really lovely couple in their 70’s from Texas (also as it happens, and then they found out that they knew Lauren’s Grandmother albeit casually once at a fundraiser) called Susie and Scott.
Lauren was a fantastic tour guide as she spoke English naturally and knew so much about the history and region. She was worth double the money as she brought to life everything with interesting commentary as if it was her first time telling it and welcomed and could handle any question from botany to animal husbandry to Roman history or art. We found out early in the day that she was also our guide for tomorrow – brilliant!
We set off in a westerly direction as Lauren began her commentary explaining that Arles used to flood a lot being on marshland and the Bourgeoisie lived in the higher land surrounding the city – now we see their chateaux and mansions today. The north wind is quite strong and cold in winter so they built the windows to the south side, and often had decorative round fronts to capture the sun and shelter from the north. In the distance wee saw an old Benedictine Abbey (Montmajour) which was carved into a big rock surrounded by marshland in the 10th century. Legend has it that Charlemagne’s soldiers are buried there.
Next stop was an old Aqueduct Barbegal which is around 2000 yr old. Set amongst almond and olive tress you can wander around the ruins and feel the history -literally. I had great time touching the stones and imagining those that carved the path through the limestone and wondered what they thought as they surveyed the valley below. The Romans calculated 1 cm drop per km to get the right flow – not too fast, and not too slow. It was built as part of a big system from Uzes to feed pure water to Arles. They cut through rock to keep straight lines, and built in scaffold holes to repair and the initial build. There is a lot more to the whole aqueduct process that we will find out about when we go to the museum at Pont Du Gard later in the week.
The scenery along the countryside was really pretty – lots of olive trees, rice, the occasional stork and other birds, sunflowers, thistles, lots of stone and agriculture fruit trees. An interesting fact on the thistles, not only do Lauren’s horses love to eat them, but the thistle flowers were used to brush silk! Paddocks freshly harvested from their grain crops are a beautiful golden blonde under the bright blue sky. At one point Lauren just pulled over to show us a limestone hill and pick the local native herbs of thyme, rosemary and fennel. You would not have known that unless you were local – makes eating Provençal herbs so much more romantic now!
She also pointed out the many beautiful large Plane trees, many that are over 300 years old. Closer to Arles Napoleon was the one who started planting them on the side of road ways as shade for his troupes. It is facinating to realize when you consider all the Roman history around here how they built for the future, yet had relatively short life spans.
A surprisingly interesting stop was the St. Paul asylum at St. Remy that Vincent Van Gogh admitted himself into for a period of 6 months. We were able to see his bedroom, art room and the window from which he painted his ‘Field of Wheat’ and other garden paintings. It is still used as a place for mentally ill, and has a wonderful healing atmosphere. I enjoyed the little lavender field which is viewed from his window, and watched beautiful yellow and orange butterflies working the blossoms. The monastery still holds art workshops as therapy for the ill as continued memory to Vincent and the work he did there himself and with others. Vincent is another artist I would like to learn more about his art – is very interesting and beautiful.
We past through the pretty villages of Mousinn and Le Beaux – the later being named for the boxite that was mined in the hill below it. Another interesting tit bit is that the local merino sheep are wintered down here in Provence and are taken north to cooler climate for the summer. Near Le Beaux you can see some huge old limestone quarry which the Romans made – incredible to think how they cut such huge stones and hills.
The four hours passed so quickly and we were dropped back off at 1pm before we knew it. It was a very hot 36 degrees and we made our way back home as fast as possible in the shade to have a cold shower and enjoy the air con. Refreshed we headed out to the train station stopping at bakery on the way to grab a very good onion and anchovy pizza slice, and for Vern a ham and cheese. We were hoping to go to Nimes for the afternoon but the particular 3pm train required booked tickets, and we had to wait till it arrived to see if the attendant had any free seats. Whilst we could see free seats, he said no it was full (think he was too lazy) so we headed back home to rest and blog before having having an early dinner.
Our luck was better at dinner time as we headed to a top rated restaurant that a kiwi couple we bumped into at the tour stand in the morning recommended – it was fully booked but as he had just opened and I asked sweetly he caved in and let us have an early seat. It was a most excellent Vietnamese restaurant- and the service was so friendly. At the end he gave us a free rose scented saki which had quite a kick. Feeling a rose relaxed and warm glow to our toes we wandered the shabby streets past the ancient arena to our hotel – thinking this run down looking town is starting to grow on us like a well worn pair of boots.
Travels with Valrock 