Last evening we had special local entertainment onboard at 9pm while we were still docked in Avignon who played flamenco music on guitars and sang along as they played. It probably wasn’t a good night to have outside entertainment, or the group onboard this river cruise is really a much older age demographic, because there were only about 25 people in the lounge to hear the entertainers! We have about 180 onboard the ship for this Rhone river cruise on the Viking Buri, so who knows if everyone was tired from a long day of travelling, but they were back in their cabins instead of in the lounge. Anyway, one of the guys who was playing guitar and singing used to play with the Gipsy Kings who were actually founded in 1979 in Arles, France! The entertainers called ‘Les Gitans’ played a mixture of Catalan rumba, flamenco, salsa and pop and they were very good.
We had met some great Aussies who we met up with in the lounge to listen to the entertainers and it seems like we always gravitate to the Aussies when we are on a cruise!
Our Program Director, Daniela Ebert, told us at the Port Talk yesterday that we were extremely lucky to be sailing this week as the group from last week’s Rhone cruise was not able to visit Arles at all. We were really looking forward to our full day in Arles today because the last time we had visited Arles on a Uniworld cruise we were only there for 1/2 day a day and we did not get the full experience from the visit.
I woke up this morning at 5am as soon as I felt the ship start sailing from Avignon to Arles. The plan was we would arrive at 8:15am into Arles and we were exactly on schedule this morning.
Arriving into Arles, France this morning.
We were somehow running late this morning getting ready for our 9:15am excursion and we hadn’t even eaten breakfast when Richard had to go and grab a tray and bring us back some pastries and fruit to eat quickly before we left the ship. We will plan better for the rest of the cruise!
Our ship was docked next to another non-Viking ship at Arles today, so we had to walk over the sun deck of our ship; the sun deck of the other ship and the steps up and down to the sun decks were causing some slowdown for people with mobility issues.
Viking sun deck
Other river cruise ship sun deck
Many ramps to go up and down today to get to the shore where we were to meet our guides
Given today was the first day of real excursions on this cruise, things didn’t always go as planned with people forgetting their Quietvox devices and people who were not prompt for the excursion.
Our guide, Pierrette was from just outside of Arles and she had been doing tours for many years and was a very experienced and good guide since she had 31 in her group on the included walking tour of Arles.
The remains of a railroad bridge which was bombed and destroyed by Allied forces during the fighting for the liberation of Provence in WW2.
You can see on the left of the photo that a pillar of the old railway bridge remains. The railway was very important for the transport of goods, but the issue was the German forces were using the railway to transport weapons and supplies and the Allies had to use whatever means they could, including bombing the railway bridge to slow the Germans down.
Our guide made sure she took us first to Les Arenas: The Roman Amphiteatre of Arles, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The arena in Old Arles was built in the 1st century A.D. to seat 21,000 people, with large tunnels through which wild beasts were forced to run into the centre. Spectators would come to watch chariot races and bloody hand to hand gladiatorial contests. The Amphiteatre was plundered in the middle ages and people built homes within its walls and the arena became a town, complete with a central square. Restoration of the Amphiteatre began in 1825 and today the area is primarily a venue for bullfights which take place annually in April at Easter and in September and October.
Sneaking our first peak at The Roman Amphitheatre in Arles, France
The last time we were in Arles, our Uniworld guide walked us past this amazing Amphiteatre and we were not allowed to go inside!
To think this was constructed in the 1st century AD and that it is still standing is amazing!
The structure had 3 stories of 60 arcades each
The towers jutting out from the amphitheatre were a midieval ‘add on’
I was so impressed by The Roman Amphitheatre of Arles! Wow!
Built in 90 AD, with the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, the Amphiteatre became a shelter for the population and was transformed into a fortress with four towers. The structure encircled more than 200 houses during this time.
Arles is not only famous for its Roman Amphitheatre, but for Vincent Van Gogh who arrived in 1888 when he established a residence in Arles dreaming of starting an artist’s cooperative. Van Gogh painted a work called “Les Arenes” which reflects people at the Roman Amphitheatre of Arles.
‘Les Arenes’. Our guide pointed out that Van Gogh was more interested in the people and what they were wearing than the actual Amphiteatre or its bull fighting which take up a lot less space in his painting.
As walked through the village of Arles we could imagine Vincent Van Gogh setting up his easel and painting with the glorious sunshine on this 24C or 75F day! Van Gogh was attracted to Arles and the south of France because of the sunlight, the foliage and the skies after getting fed up with the hustle and bustle of grey Paris.
We visited Hospital Dieu where Van Gogh was twice hospitalized for acute mania or delirium after he cut his left ear off.
Van Gogh was an amazing painter despite the mental illness he struggled with during his lifetime. He was very prolific painting in Arles having completed over 300 paintings or about one third of his entire life’s work of paintings. Van Gogh never thought he was a good painter and in fact he only sold one painting in his entire life - ‘The Red Vineyard’
Van Gogh painted ‘The Red Vineyard’ in Arles in 1888 and it sold in 1890 in Brussels for 400 francs to a Belgian painter and collector Anna Bouch. The painting was later purchased in 1909 from a Paris art gallery by Ivan Morozov. After the Russian Revolution, the painting was nationalized by the Bolsheviks and was eventually passed to Moscow’s Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, where it resides today!
Narrow pedestrian streets of Arles
Walking through Arles you couldn’t help but admire the gorgeous cobblestone streets, old doors and the windows and the colours of the homes with their antique shutters painted in a very strict town counsel approved colours. The entire town is really a very magical place and as we meandered through the streets of Arles we came upon the square where Van Gogh painted ‘Cafe Terrace at Night’.
Today in the same square there was a movie shoot going on and we watched the actors walking along in front of the Cafe Nuit as it is now called, pretending to be tourists in Arles looking for where Van Gogh painted.
Our guide walked us back to the Viking Buri and we tipped her and made our way before the crowd back to the ship as we wanted to sit out and have lunch on the Aquavit Terrace instead of in the main Dining Room. It was such a gorgeous day and we never thought that when we booked this cruise we would be sitting out having lunch outside in late October in France!
The sweater and scarf soon came off sitting out on the Aquavit terrace!
Our view at lunch.
Green asparagus soup with smoked salmon julienne
Greek Salad
Beignets de. Viande au Fromage Feta or feta-filled beef patty with potato wedges, rosemary juice and tzatziki
Brown Sugar & Cinnamon Baked Apple with caramel sauce
Lunch was delicious and while I did not eat everything I was served, it was very tasty. I opted to skip dessert but I did have a taste of the caramel sauce on this apple and it was amazing!
We enjoyed lunch but did not linger as we had the entire afternoon free in Arles, so we wanted to go back to this beautiful town and walk around some more and explore it on our own. Our back on board time was not until 5:45pm today.
I loved the intricate metal bars in front of the windows which perfectly matched the green of the shutters, door and grate!
The beautiful colours of the homes in Arles were delightful!
After walking around the streets of Arles for about an hour and picking up some souvenirs to remember this beautiful place we decided we would have a drink in a small cafe with our Aussie friends Rob and Vange. What a great place to while away an afternoon!
Arles was truly an amazing place to walk in the footsteps of history from the 1st century masters who engineered the construction of the amazing Roman Amphitheatre, to the glorious, rich, colourful paintings from Van Gogh’s days in Arles in the late 1800’s. The history was so overwhelming to see in one day! We loved our day in Arles and were so glad we had the chance to come back and visit places we had missed the first time with Uniworld.
We set off from Arles promptly at 6pm to head back to Avignon where we will be docked this evening.
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