To Arles, France

June 20, 2025

Heart

Comment

Today was not a ten jammer breakfast. No eggs. The croissants were strangely dense, and too heavily tasting of butter. Look at me be a croissant critic! The one redeeming feature was a squeeze your own orange juice machine. It's a simple pleasure to put the oranges in the hopper and turn the handle round and round to make the juice. It was a 16 E breakfast and hardly worth half that. We were a captive audience. Certainly local restaurants weren't open at 8 AM.

Jacinto walked to the store to buy TWO bags of ice for the day. They were small bags. I didn't have much hope for my regular water bottle. Tell me why I didn't bring a stainless bottle on this trip? Jacinto's camelback kept cold water all day.

We were on the road at 9:45 - not ideal for a 100- degree day. My hope is that we would keep moving and create our own breeze. We retraced our tire tracks a few miles on the bike path. Then we did the short hike a bike up to the bridge, and took a right. The D Roads were pleasant riding today. Weekend traffic must not start on Friday in this area? We were supposed to take a smaller road to a two minute ferry ride. Just as we made the corner, an English speaking bicycle tourist stopped, and said the ferry was closed. Don't continue on. He saved us a ten mile round trip!

Instead we had to ride down the shoulder of the road past a long line of cars. There was bridge construction that allowed one way traffic only. The one way was blocked off with Jersey barriers to be extremely narrow, so cars had to enter slowly. The bridge itself wasn't long, but the one way part was really slowing traffic. That was helpful to us, as traffic came by occasionally, and in clumps.

We were moving along at 15 mph. That's not my usual speed. Can you tell it is flat here? We were taking a loop down to Saintes-Maries to see the flamingos. The Andersons' and the Grampies both spent significant time here, and visited the parks looking for birds. Their photos were so enticing, I wanted to come and see the flamingos myself. I am content with riding past them and snapping a few photos.

Saintes-Maries is a harbor town. We rode right along the pier. We came to the arena, and a blocked road. A tourist train (a la Disney) was dropping off people. I asked the driver (English!) what was happening. He said they would be running bulls and horses to the arena in 5-10 minutes. It ended up being more like an hour of waiting in the hot sun. Jacinto was very interested - expecting a Pamplona type experience. That did not happen. Instead the bulls were escorted 2-3 at a time, tightly grouped. Their horns were covered (with leather?). I presume so as to not hurt the horses.

I swigged down my entire extra bottle of water just as we left. I told Jacinto let's see how long it will be before I have to pee. We had another 25 miles to Arles. Maybe it's more than you wanted to know - but I was dehydrated enough that I didn't even think about peeing the entire distance!

The approach into Arles was delightfully traffic light. Once we crossed over the bridge into the old town, cars weren't on our route at all, only pedestrians and bicycles. I was extra happy about that, because I didn't want to overheat, wandering around looking for the hotel. We rode right to it, and got straight inside. There were lots of positive going on there.

The inside of the lobby felt like walking into a refrigerator. I might not ever leave! Jacinto said he was very proud of me. Oooh - I like that. Why are you proud? Because I didn't complain even once today of the heat. I have to admit it's true - I don't do heat well. Today we kept moving at a fast enough clip that I always had a breeze.

We have a nice large room, the AC works. There's more than two towels! A big negative is that the internet didn't work all afternoon, but when we returned from dinner it was working.

We walked the circumference of the amphitheater, checking out the food options. We ended up with a 24E menu de jour. The other place (in a breeze) that had a menu was 42E. I felt thrifty. It was pretty toasty, sitting in the shade with no breeze. We had three carafes of water. We ordered the same beef specialty as last night. I think the gravy had a better flavor last night, although this was tasty. Jacinto's salad had chicken livers and mine had eggplant. The salads here are excellent. Food in general is really spoiling us. It seems as if the America West has lots of burgers and chicken strips when you stop in the small towns, as we usually do.

Tomorrow we have a short day to Avignon. This was a late change. Scott had suggested we skip it, as I don't like cities. So true. But then I got sucked in by walking the ramparts. It's going to be really hot again. We could sleep in, if we only look at the miles. I told Jacinto I'm like a frog in a pot. If I start out cool, and it gradually warms up, then I'm okay. But if I go outside and it's hot, then I'm hot. The only possible advantage is that we are still riding on flat land, so I should keep my speed up. We are heading into another area with cute little French towns - Barbentane, and Saint-Remy-de-Provence are two. But, with the Avignon destination, we are skipping them. I had last minute regrets, and asked Jacinto should we change our route. But he said to go with the plan.

We are looking forward to gaining some elevation. I want to get out of the heat. Jacinto wants to climb. We won't talk about how hot Venice is going to be in July!

The stairs to our room. Imagine all of the history!

We shared parking with motorcycles. We paid 12E for bicycle parking and I think the motorcycles were 24E.

Our bikes were parked under the bull fighter poster.

A ranch entry. We are still in the Camargue.

Is this horse in the pasture as an advertisement?

This statue on the embankment was a surprise.

A sculpture in front of the arena in Saintes Maries.

We happened upon an event at the area where they were escorting the bulls to the arena.

Jacinto was disappointed that the bulls didn’t run free, like at Pamplona. Instead they were closely grouped and escorted.

Some wagons of important locals (?) followed afterward.

This is the best photo of flamingos we took today. Most were too far away for a good photo.

Our bicycles have their own room in the courtyard.

Our bedroom at the Hotel de Amphitheater.

The amphitheater in Arles. We could only walk the exterior. Renovations are slowly continuing.

Jacinto is double fisting his drinks. By the time I asked for a third carafe of water, the waitress was a little tight lipped.

The church as seen from the amphitheater.

Jacinto ordered chicken liver as a starter. It’s interesting to see their livers offered. We haven’t seen chicken on the menu at all. Duck,yes.

Today's ride: 43 miles (69 km)
Total: 552 miles (888 km)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	8
Comment on this entry	Comment	1

Scott AndersonNice that someone tipped you off about the ferry closure! It was closed the last time we were there too, which was a disappointment. The bull 'fighting' is a feature of the region, but much different than Spain - we saw similar celebrations beneath the walls of Arles and in Saint-Remy the last time we were there.
Reply to this comment
1 month ago