Gare d'Arles

Moving day - time to leave Arles behind. It has proved a good home base for our stay in Provence. Just time for our breakfast and a stroll through a small section of the enormous Saturday morning market.
We are headed to Marseilles today - for a quick look around. It seems that Arles and Marseilles have some history. Arles has an unusual number of Roman ruins and artefacts. The reason given is that Julius Caesar was having a spot of bother with a military rival, Pompey the great, who had a strong base in Marseilles. Caesar asked the people of Arles to build him a dozen warships and they came through in a remarkably short time. He rewarded them by giving his retiring generals and other buddies land in Arles which meant money and infrastructure and general prosperity.Read more