Sidewalk Travels

With my weekdays kept busy by French class, my touring slowed down quite a bit. On Sunday, I took a quick trip up the coast towards Monaco. I had no particularly significant sights in mind, I just wanted to take in some of the beauty of La Côte d’Azur. I began my journey by riding the bus out to the little village of Villefranche-sur-Mer, just outside of Nice. From there I walked across the picturesque Cap Ferat to the even smaller village of St. Jean-Cap-Ferat before walking up the coast to the town of Beaulieu-sur-Mer where I caught the bus to Monaco. To be honest, I didn’t find Monaco particularly exciting. Which leaves me with not a lot written here. So, just click through and enjoy the photos.

Departing Aix en Provence I left behind the first part of my trip; a tour of Provence. Next up was two weeks in Nice. I had an apartment booked in the city center not far from the train station. Given that the bedroom, living room & kitchen were all separate rooms, it was actually something of a luxury accommodation for me.After getting setup there, and given that it was a beautiful, sunny day (quite unlike my quick visit to Nice last year), I went straight down to the sea-front. The Monday after Easter is a public holiday in France, so there were lots of people about. And, even though the temperature was only in the 60′s, there were plenty of them enjoying the sunshine on the beach; and even a few brave souls out swimming.I walked down the beach along the Promenade des Anglais, the main strolling street, and then up Castle Hill for views over the city & sea. Afterwards, I walked back to explore my neighborhood some and find a restaurant for dinner. Given the holiday, many restaurants were closed, so I eventually settled on a Chinese place (a change of pace if you will). I was amused when the waiter (owner?) brought over my half bottle of wine already opened, but carrying the corkscrew as if he had just removed the cork (when it was quite obvious he hadn’t). At €6 for a half bottle, I really didn’t care. I just couldn’t figure out why he felt the need for the charade, and didn’t just serve it in a little pitcher like so many other restaurants.

After returning the car in Avignon and dropping my bag by my new hotel, I hopped a bus out to Pont du Gard, another ancient Roman sight; in this case a bridge transporting an aqueduct over the Gardon river. I had hoped to visit here on my first day, along with Nîmes since they are relatively close, but the transportation connections were a bit challenging. But leaving before noon from Avignon allowed me to spend a little over an hour out at the sight before catching another bus to Nîmes where I could a train back to Avignon. Whew. But it was either that, or spend 5+ hours out at the sight, which was way too long.The bus from Avignon dropped me at a traffic circle in the middle of nowhere with nary a bridge, river or ancient Roman rock in sight. But the bus driver spoke excellent English, so I was confident that I was in the right place and eventually found the visitor’s center after a brisk 5 minute walk.The Pont du Gard is a bridge built in the first century AD by the Romans to deliver water via aqueduct to Nîmes. That was before the invention of mortar, so all of the stones used in its construction fit together tightly enough to have survived almost 2000 years. The primary arch is the largest ever built by the Romans. An adjoining 18th century bridge was still in use for road traffic until just recently.The ride back was almost overly interesting, as well. There was a bus stop closer in to the sight, next to the parking lot. It had a schedule that showed a convenient bus directly back to Avignon. Luckily I enquired with the parking lot attendant, though, because apparently that bus stop & schedule weren’t currently in use.After eventually returning to Avignon, it was laundry day. Yay. In the evening I had an especially tasty dinner nearby my hotel (Caveau du Theatre). The entrée was a “crumble” of ratatouille served with an olive tapenade. Much yummy. Unfortunately, I missed judged on my main plate. While tasty, it did a number on my stomach overnight. And I had to get up at 5am and wouldn’t reach my next hotel until approximately 3pm. No more mystery curries on travel days.

I woke up early for a busy day of driving around to visit a number of little hill towns. Unfortunately, as I closed the trunk after stowing my bag I heard a tinklingly crash. My hopes that the disturbing noise had been merely coincidental to me closing the trunk were dashed when I observed the pavement glistening with portions of my passenger side window. Lucky me, my car had been broken into overnight. As I walked back to my hotel, I noticed that mine wasn’t the only lucky car in the parking lot last night. Two others were also sporting shattered windows. Fortunately, I hadn’t left anything in the car to be stolen (when you only have one bag, it’s hard to leave anything behind in the car).

Now, I really have to mention again how tiny, quaint & charming Roussillon is. So peaceful. It genuinely falls in the category of “the last place on earth you’d expect something like this to happen”. Oh, well.

After talking to my hotelier (who only spoke broken English to my gibberish French), I found out that I needed to head to the Gendarmerie (which I think is roughly the county sheriff or highway patrol; no local police in Roussillon) to file a report. This was located in a neighboring town, about a 15 minute drive through the countryside away. Mercifully, the weather was dry & mild.

My visit to the Gendarmerie went much smoother than I had feared. The Officer who took my report spoke pretty good English and was even kind enough to help me with talking to the rental car company. However, I also discovered that the Gendarmerie takes their lunch (two) hour(s) very seriously (yes, even the police stations close for lunch).

Getting a replacement car was the biggest challenge of the day. It took almost an hour on & off the phone for the company to locate one for me. And then it was over an hour distant from the Gendarmerie in the opposite direction of where my next hotel was located. Plus, it wasn’t going to be ready until 5pm. Bah.

So, as the Gendarmerie closed up shop to make their ways out for lunch, I headed off driving with a missing window providing a refreshing breeze. I had plenty of time, so I decided to at least try to drive by some of the towns I had hoped to visit. The scenery is beautiful in this area and every 10 minutes or so you pass an impossibly picturesque medieval village perched on a hilltop. But, since locking a car with a missing window doesn’t do much good, I couldn’t get out to visit any of them.

After driving by what villages I could, I headed towards the town where I was supposed to pick up my replacement car. As I drove in I thought to myself “as much as I hate to see American culture infiltrating Europe, I really wouldn’t mind finding a drive through right now”, since I couldn’t really get out of the car for more than a “quick stop” type store. And funny if I don’t see an advertisement for a “McDrive” on a bus stop shelter once I get into town. So, I’m thinking that I’m not going to drive out of my way for a McDonald’s, but if I were to drive past it, that would certainly help solve a problem. And sure enough, there it is. So, I circle the roundabout and enter McDonald’s only to find the McDrive completely occupied by the McDelivery truck which had arrived just ahead of me. Oh well. I can’t really complain much about NOT having to eat McDonald’s.

Luckily, when I get to rental car place 2 hours early (I figured I’d just drop off the car and walk someplace for lunch) the lady working there hadn’t been informed of my situation. I say luckily, because she just proceeded to get me setup with another car right away, instead of waiting for whatever car I was supposed to get, but not before 5pm. As it turned out, I think the car she gave me was probably scheduled for maintenance (it had a terrible shake from the front end as it got up to highway speeds), but at the time I was just glad I didn’t have to wait 2 hours to get a car.

So, in my new car with all of it’s windows I headed for Vaison la Romaine and my hotel for the next two nights. I had to skip the scenic drive over a local mountain because it was getting late, but it had been a day of missed sights anyway. And I ended up arriving in Vaison early enough to do a bit of wandering around before dark, which was nice.

All in all, it could have been much worse. I didn’t lose anything. And mercifully it was the passenger window that was broken and not the driver’s side. So, basically it just cost me a full day’s touring and a fair amount of frustration. I’ve hurt worse.

Sunday was laundry day, then some exploring around my “home-base” of Arles.Did I mention how hard it is to pronounce Arles and be understood? Remember my marathon journey to get here? My last connection was from the empty & mostly dark TGV train-station (out in the middle of nowhere, rather than in town) to a bus to Arles. At approximately 10pm after 28ish straight hours of traveling. No bus station, like I for some reason expected, just a couple of shelters. So I approach the only waiting bus, whose driver speaks little English and eventually determine that he’s heading into Avignon (which I suspected). I try to ask him where to meet the bus to Arles (when I bought my train tickets back in Frankfurt, the lady had the schedule for the bus connecting me to Arles, so I knew there was one; I just wasn’t sure where to meet it at). And I got a very blank stare. Arles is one of the major tourist destinations in the area, so I knew it had to be a matter of pronunciation (mine, that is). I think I finally got through to him by spelling it.I’m still not completely sure I can pronounce it correctly. It definitely does NOT rhyme with “are” or “our”. And don’t even think about pronouncing the ‘s’ at the end. It starts with a big “ah”, followed by the French ‘r’ which gives me so much difficulty. My current theory is to start rolling the ‘r’ from the back of my throat and following it with a breath (like an ‘h’). Needless to say, when I think that hard about it, it doesn’t come out sounding very pretty.Anyway. Arles has a well preserved arena just like Nîmes, although not quite as large. Interestingly, Arles is restoring their arena to it’s original glory. As in, they are restoring/repairing the stone face of the arena so that it no longer looks like an ancient ruin but instead looks brand new. The picture shows a restored section adjoining an original section. I have to imagine this is causing some controversy from a historical/preservation perspective (although, at least they’re not blowing it up for a parking lot). But, when they finish it will be amazing to see a “brand new” Roman arena.Arles also is home to the ruins of a Roman theater. To be honest, this sight was a bit of a let down. The seating area is the best preserved portion and it was off limits.More interesting is the Romanesque entrance to St. Trophime Church. Recently restored, it is easy to make out the many details of the intricate carvings that relate a medieval interpretation of Judgment Day.Arles other claim to fame is as the home of Vincent Van Gogh for a little more than a year. Some of his most famous paintings were painted here, including the “Café Terrace at Night”. The café still exists, but you really can’t recognize it (even with it being renamed to the Van Gogh Café, just to be sure no one misses it). Arles is also where Van Gogh went nuts after an disagreement with Gauguin and cut off part of his ear in grief. Arles (and several other nearby towns) play up their Van Gogh connection strongly. But, since there aren’t any of his paintings here, the experience is mostly disappointing.I spent 4 nights in Arles. It was quiet & comfortable. My hotel was on a tiny street in what is described as an old manor-home. My room, while thoroughly modern, overlooked a delightful little courtyard inside the hotel. I also ate well in Arles. Two of my three nights I dined at a lovely little bistrot with a chalk board menu and an extensive, local wine list. The very nice lady who served me was excellent at pairing very reasonably priced wine with whatever meal I had ordered.

After my late-night arrival, I got up early the next morning and hopped a train from Arles to Nîmes.Nîmes was an ancient Roman city of some importance. It’s two major sights (an arena and a temple) are both notable for being among the (if not the) best preserved examples of their respective types of Roman architecture. And, the arena is still in use today for bull fights (apparently very popular in Provence) and other events.While not nearly as large as the Colosseum in Rome, Nîmes’ arena was neat to visit because you can walk around just about everywhere (the “field” being a notable exception). The arena survived to our time because in the middle ages it’s portals were walled up and it was transformed into a fortified city. There were residents living in houses incorporated into this arena until the time of Napoleon.The Maison Carrée is slightly less exciting. It’s amazing to see a complete Roman temple, but it’s really only available to be viewed from the outside. The inside hosts a corny-looking 3D movie (“Heroes of Nîmes”, spoken in big, dramatic voice) that I opted to skip.Nîmes also has a fairly elaborate city gardens built around some canals that originate at an ancient Roman spring and temple. The garden was modeled after Versailles and was the first such garden built for the public rather than a King or nobility.Nîmes is also a lovely city to wander. Lots of cafés. It’s old city center is extraordinarily intact. But, as opposed to so many “tourist” cities, it seems almost entirely focused on daily life rather than souvenir shops. And while very urban, it’s also very clean. I’m rather wishing I had decided to get a hotel here for a couple of nights.Palm trees are common in Nîmes. The city’s emblem is a crocodile tied to a palm tree, symbolizing Rome’s victory over Egypt (Egypt is the crocodile and the palm tree symbolizes victory). The emblem can be found all over the city.