Category: Découvrir la France

Post by Ella Staying in a pedestrian only area in Arles and having a rental car meant finding a place to park added to travel challenge. Our AirBnB host gave us the location of a parking garage that was “secure and monitored “ 24/7. A 15 minute walk to the apartment. Okay, that works.  We…

Post by Ella ❤️La Nuit Arlésienne❤️ (The Arles Night) is the name of our apartment. I guess the hearts were meant to catch your eye so you’d stop scrolling the listings on AirBnB. “Oh, this one must be great, look at those hearts”. Honestly, emojis as part of a name confounds my brain. I guess…

I’ve come face-to-face with this Egyptian god of the underworld and protector of graves.  He has the body of a man with a canine head, so even from a distance he’s hard to miss.   I first ran into him while moiling through the Louvre.  I was trying to skirt the crowd and there he was right in…

How can one not love a penguin or a flamingo?  The penguin for waddling in a tux, the flamingo for its stately pose in pink finery.  It’s only fitting that we made our journey to the gathering of the flamingos in France.  Their upright stillness, the long graceful loop of their necks as they dip their beaks in…

The Saint-Trophime Catholic Church holds a prominent corner of the large square in the center of Arles that once was the Roman forum.  It was first constructed in the 12th century.   It was built in the Romanesque tradition as you can tell from the pillars fronting the entrance.  When it comes to medieval churches, I prefer Gothic…

Post by Ella Yesterday, Grubb wanted to soak up the Van Gogh vibe (along with a lot of rain) so after he snapped a dozen or so photos of the closed Le Cafe Van Gogh, we sat down for lunch under an awning at L’Apostrophe right next door.  We both opted for burgers. I went…

Post by Ella The Carmague, a regional park south of Arles is known for its abundance of birds and other wildlife including flamingos and white horses. In Arles, the Rhône splits in two and between the two branches, in the area close to the sea, there are abundant salt marshes. At the Ornithological Park within…

This shot of colorful boat-shaped tables outside a seaside cafe in Menton had me recall tables we had come across near an outdoor museum kiosk a few days earlier.   The museum kiosk had, unbeknownst to me, a hierarchy of tables.  I thought we could sit down and have a cup of coffee, but was quickly informed…

I forgot to mention that in the midst of our Arles rain walk we took a brief tour of the cryptoporticus, a “semi-subterranean gallery whose vaulting supports portico structures aboveground” such as the forum which served as the Roman marketplace of the city. No one is quite sure went on down there during Roman rule,…

Post by Ella Musée Réattu, housed in a 15th century building, was delightful. We might have skipped it but for the steady rain. This was the first break in our perfect weather streak so not complaining. In fact, torrential downpours and thunderstorms had been forecast but the waterworks never got more intense than a steady…