A cultural tour

At the very leisurely time of 9am we were collected by our guide, who was to give us a tour of his home city of Arles. It soon became obvious that the two of us had barely scratched the surface during our self-conducted tour the previous day. Patrick is an artist, Kansas-born, but resident in several European countries during the course of his life. Much of his tour was given over to Vincent van Gogh, who had lived in Arles for just over a year and had created many paintings there during the period. Patrick was able to take us to several of the exact spots where van Gogh had set up his easel, and to show us prints of the preliminary sketches and the final paintings that the artist had created. In most instances the buildings had little changed since that time, which made it very interesting. He was also very knowledgeable about architecture, so was able to point out interesting design features of many of the buildings. Altogether, a very interesting and enjoyable tour, though somewhat different from what we had been expecting. We then had a bit of free time before sailing time, but once again it wasn't quite enough to allow us a leisurely wander inside the amphitheatre..

We then headed off four a leisurely four-hour cruise, some of it taken up with our usual four-course lunch, towards the small village of Gallician, where we were due to moor overnight. Leaving Arles, we took the fork in the river which put us on to the Petit Rhone, the smaller and less populated branch of the river. We reached Gallician late in the afternoon. Four of us then decided to take a short walk to the village, but quickly decided that it wasn't all that interesting for exploration. We then walked along the river path to a distant bridge, crossed over and walked back along the opposite bank. All told, we covered the 7km loop at a vigorous pace, so were able to feel virtuous when downing our pre-dinner drinks followed by the usual high standard dinner and wine.Read more