Looking up from the river bed.Looking down from a viewpoint on a nearby path.
These could have been from anytime in the past two millennia.
The Pont du Gard is so old and classic, in the antiquities classic way, that I couldn’t resist giving a black and white conversion a try. If you’d like to compare, I posted it in color on my other web site: Real golden Arches: Pont du Gard.
I use the Gnu Image Manipulation Program (a.k.a., the GIMP) with the Nik plug in for the conversion. If you are interesting in using the GIMP for black and white I have a post about how to do it: Black and white digital photo processing using the GIMP.
It is common to see a few arches when you look down a narrow alley. In places where there wasn’t room to put in a foundation the buildings support each other.
Where space is tight the buildings support each other.
The Mairie (town hall)
This town hall has a fascinating structure of partial arches carefully balanced. It’s held up for a very long time, the building was completed in 1676. You can read a bit about it here: The Vault of the Hôtel de Ville in Arles.
The town hall has partial arches carefully balanced.
Van Gogh’s arches
The garden of the former hospital building is maintained to look like van Gogh’s “Garden of the Hospital in Arles”.
Romanesque arches
The Church of St. Trophime is a lovely building with lots of arches, inside and out. If you are interested here is the Wikipedia article about it: Church of St. Trophime, Arles. The article includes a description of the fascinating sculptures around the portal.
The West Portal of the Church of St. Trophime.A lovely little side niche in the Church of St. Trophime.
As part of my recent trip to France I took a river cruise on the Rhone. When Dean, the agent who helped me arrange the cruise asked me what my favorite part was my answer was quick: Viviers. He seemed a bit surprised, his favorites had been Arles and Lyon with their dramatic Roman ruins.
Viviers doesn’t have, at least that I saw, dramatic Roman ruins. They may be there, possibly in the walls or under the floors of the existing buildings. But Viviers is, in my opinion, charm itself.
I loved the cobblestones. The guide pointed out how they laid the stones differently in the middle and on the sides to make it easier to walk, better traction, or roll carts, less bumpy.
I loved the narrow streets and passage ways. The space is so tight that they use the buildings to support each other by building arches over the streets. In one spot someone when needed more room for his expanding family he bought the house across the street and built a sky bridge between the two places.
Narrow street.
Skybridge
Arches and passages.
I loved the tiled rooftops and lovely views of the surrounding countryside. It was worth the climb through the narrow streets to get there.
A fellow traveler admiring the view.
Looking out at the Rhone valley.
Views of rooftops and countryside.
There were also some fun quirky details:
Is that what I think it is?
A cat hole?
I’m guessing so.
I’m sure that my warm buzz about the morning was augmented by the tasty tomato bisque they served up for lunch, perfect after a rainy walk.
But the reason it was my favorite part of the cruise was this: I would never have gone there on my own. Traveling on my own I’d have spent more time in Arles or Avignon and never even known this little gem of a city was there.
Amie-Lu and I migrated today. The easy way-we took the Train de Grande Vitesse from Gare de Lyon to Avignon. Gare de Lyon is a lovely old train station that is a major hub for all trains heading south and east.
from the outside
from the inside
Gare de Lyon
Avignon was noticeably slower moving than Paris. Some of that might be the heat, but I think it was more the approach to life showing through.
I took the wrong straight (I needed to take the bent one) and eventually realized it. Sitting next to a dog who looks a lot like Max I decided that everything happens for a reason, and the reason for this mistake was clear: cassis sorbet. It was meant to be.
Max-alike
cassis sorbet
Palais des Papes
Instead of making a reservation and spending the evening dining Amie-Lu and I picked up a sandwich and some fruit at a grocery store and went exploring as the day wound down.
Avignon has a lot of warm yellow stone in the walls of its various edifices, and intriguing little passages.
We wandered along the outside of the city walls, took in the famous Pont d’Avignon then found a stairway up the Roche des Doms and enjoyed a gently lovely sunset from the top of the town.
My deer friend, Amie-Lu*, has been having a great time exploring the town. Amie-Lu has plenty of energy…she rides comfortably in the pocket of my travel vest.
I, on the other hand, find myself hitting a point where I just need to rest. One art of traveling is knowing when to get off the boat and just enjoy the view for a while…before you are exhausted. It’s fine to have a list of potential ideas, just don’t mistake it for a to-do list.
*Amie-Lu is a Chinese talisman for safe travel; James says they typically hang on rear view mirrors in cars. She was given to my husband and I by one of my son’s co-workers, a Chinese woman named Amy. Her name is from Amie-French for friend and Lu-Chinese for deer. We don’t take selfies when we travel, we take Amie-Lu-ies.
XingfuMama 