Arles and the Camargue

Back in July before leaving for a month in the U.S., I went on a great camping trip with friends outside of a city in the south of France called Martigues.  Our camping spot was right along the Mediterranean in the path of the hot, summer sun and strong Mistral wind.  After the holiday weekend, everyone was planning to return to Grenoble, but since I was on summer break, I decided to continue travelling so I found myself in Arles for a few days on my way back. With 3 days/ nights in Arles, I discovered that there was really a lot to see and do.  I really enjoyed my time there...  Let me tell you about some of the highlights.

Ancient Roman Theatre in Arles

The Monuments and Museums

Arles is home to a plethora of Roman monuments including an arena, ancient theatre, forum and more.  Our tickets included a free tour of the arena, and this was my favorite stop.  I learned that the arena was home to gladiators and the such, but was also filled with houses at one point before being restored to the arena you see today.  The monuments and museums are really the big TO DO of Arles, as there is so much to see.  I'd suggest buying the tourist pass which lets you into a selection of historical places.

Le Cloître St Trophime

Bull Race/ Run (La Course Camarguaise)

It is tradition in Arles to show off the strength and intelligence of the local bulls.  Bulls are raised on farms and in the wild in the Camargue, a natural park.  On the evening that I arrived, there was a Course Camarguaise which the tourism office suggested I see since it is known as the local sport.  The race begins with the "runners" entering the arena dressed in all white.  Soon a bull is let in with them.  The goal is for the runners to take a trinket from between the bulls horns.  Sometimes they run towards the bull, and there is a lot of jumping out of the arena as the angry bull charges.  The bulls are not harmed physically in any way, though I was a bit uncomfortable to see how frustrated they became.  One bull kept jumping out of the center arena into the surrounding circle to escape the center area. Despite this, the spectators (a significant number of locals and what seemed to be family members of the runners) were enjoying themselves and kept ooh-ing and ah-ing as the performance went on.  An interesting fact is that for each bull race, one local farmer is selected to bring his bulls for the night's festivities.

City of the Camargue

Arles sits at the very northern tip of the Camargue, which is a park which is a UNESCO designated natural reserve.  It is famous for its wild white horses, bulls, and pink flamingoes.  With an hour bus ride, you can go to Saintes Marie de la Mer, a tourist village along the Med coast with nice beaches and opportunities for horse riding.  I spent a day here, and while it was very touristy, enjoyed myself and the beautiful scenery.

Van Gogh

After getting burnt out in Paris, Vincent Van Gogh came to the south of France to recover.  Although he ended up admitting himself to a psych hospital, he spent part of his southern journey in Arles where he painted many of his famous works.  It is considered one of his most productive periods.  One work called "Night Café" shows a café in Arles lit up in the evening. There is a small museum and walk you can do to discover more about Van Gogh's relationship with Arles, but I thought it was simply cool to have the understanding that I was walking in the footsteps of a great artist whose works inspire me.

----- ADVICE -----

Eat: Jardin des Arts - There were many delicious restaurants in Arles, but this was my favorite with it's homemade ravioli filled with two kinds of fish, wrapped in squid ink pasta dough, and covered in a salmon and tomato sauce.  They didn't have any starters, which was a bit odd, but there main dishes and desserts were all that much better.

Do: Go to the tourist office and buy a tourist pass to visit the monuments and museums.  You can visit up to 5 places and save lots of money compared to individual tickets. I ended up only visiting 4 places because I ran out of time, but it was still very worth it.

Tourist Trinkets: Salt from the Camargue, Lavender products, Soap from Marseille

Cruisin' the Caribbean

Less than a month after arriving back in France, I left.

But don't be worried, I came back.  I traveled back across the big, blue ocean to join my family for a week-long cruise in the Caribbean to celebrate my grandma's 75th birthday.  (Happy Birthday Grandma!)

After an overnight layover in JFK for me, I met my family in the cruise port in San Juan, Puerto Rico to begin our journey through the sunny sea.  We had five destinations: St Bart's, St. Lucia, Antigua, Barbados, and Grenada, followed with one last day at sea aboard our fancy (and mostly meant for old(er) people) ship.  And I'm not exaggerating it being an older people's cruise... I was called a youngin' ... no joke!

Gustavia, Saint Barthélemy
St Bart's is the destination for the rich and famous.  As an overseas French territory, they use the euro, speak French, and take upon other various French cultural nuances such as topless beaches.  Here, we hiked around town to various forts (yes there were multiple) and ended up at Shell Beach, which is aptly named for the crunchy shells that make up the beach.  So on Day 1, I enjoyed the warm waters and sun with a nice adjustment into the French Caribbean.

Saint John's, Antigua
On the morning of our arrival in Antigua, also known as Wadadli by its natives, I opened my stateroom's curtains to a rainbow falling over the short, colorful houses by the harbor.  On this island, we explored the capital on foot.  After getting past the initial craziness of everyone trying to get in on the tourist business, we wound our way through town, towards the cathedral.  It was being restored so we couldn't go in, but we wondered around the small graveyard in front.  Then we found ourselves in the small historical museum, sharing insight into the island's natives, its geological and political history.  It was a West Indies island involved in the slave trade.  Although short, we decided to call it a day and returned to the ship, with a little shopping on our way.

Castries, Saint Lucia
Day 3 was a day for new adventures.  We took an organized tour that took us out of town to a natural national landmark called Pigeon Island, which is no longer technically an island due to a manmade causeway.  Upon arrival, we stripped down to our bathing suits, slathered on sunscreen, and got ready for our introduction to Snuba.  Snuba is a cross between snorkeling and snuba diving, where you breathe oxygen through an air line that's connected to the surface of the water.  Once showed the ins and outs of snuba along with the underwater hand instructions, we waded out from the beach and started swimming across the bottom of the ocean to 20 feet below the surface.  We saw many cool creatures including a spider crab, brain coral, a flounder fish that blended into the sand, a trumpeter fish, and many colorful smaller fishes.  After our short stint in the water, we continued to explore Pigeon Island with a hike to the fort that gave us a view of the island and dome volcano.

Bridgetown, Barbados
Ya man.  Barbados greeted us with that typical laid-back, friendly island feeling.  With a large group of my family, we started our day out with a rum tasting at the local distillery: Mount Gay.  It was interesting hearing some of the history of the distillery and how rum came about.  After the tour and tasting (which was a bit too much for me with straight rum - ick), I had the most delicious mojito of my life, expertly made by the resident rum-expert/ barman.  Setting out, we walked across the street (I'm not joking) and hit up the beach for a couple hours.  It was the local's beach... only a few others were there and certainly no tourists, with soft, fine sand and warm water.  We found some pieces of coral, and my brother rubbed sand into my hair (thanks bro, I was still finding sand a week later).  It was a day of island luxury, and before leaving, I had an interesting conversation with a local artist about his perspectives on vacations and island-living.  He was pretty nice and gifted me a bracelet even though I didn't buy his work.

Saint George's, Grenada
Grenada, the Island of Spices, lived up to its name.  We took a short hike, where our guide explained the origins of several spices including cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, and more.  We also learned that Grenada is known for its cocoa, and it ships its finest cocoa to only one location: Switzerland.  We were surrounded by delicious smells.  Then we arrived at Grande Anse Beach, which is 2-miles long, for some fun-in-the-water and relaxing time.  I love feeling the warm currents and sand between my toes, but don't know if I could ever get used to nasty salt water getting in my mouth!

Day at Sea
Our last day on our cruise ship through Oceania Cruises was spent at sea while we returned to Puerto Rico.  We took advantage of the chance to enjoy hanging out by the pool, and continuing to eat too much, as we had all week.  We ended the day with our last family dinner in the fancy Italian restaurant on board, so fancy that we received a whole separate menu to decide which olive oil and balsamic vinegar we would like for our bread.

It was a wonderful week seeing my family, exploring new places, and feeling the sand between my toes.  I am very thankful for such an experience. Thank you! (you know who you are)