We were up late...9:30 am after a tough day of touring yesterday. Thought we'd have breakfast on the road...I brought a Pop Tart...is that sacrilege in a country that serves crepes? I don't know, but I had one.
We needed petrol
. More specifically, we needed diesel fuel. And we didn't know where to get it or how to pump it. I had heard some horror stories of people trying to fuel their vehicles and their credit cards now working. With the problems we had experienced with our credit cards, I was concerned. The nice lady at the desk told us how to get to a "Huit-0-Huit" station...8-0-8. One street was blocked off for construction, so we immediately got lost. Then we determined our friendly Never Lost system who was finally talking to us now that her volume was turned up (DUH!) could find fuel. But she did send us the wrong way down a one-way street yesterday. No problems. And she did find us fuel today...the exact same station the lady at the hotel had sent us to. Interestingly, it was a BP station. Wonder if my BP card would work here?
As I pulled in, I immediately saw a problem. Which fuel to use? There were two types of regular and two types of diesel. The nice young man inside came to our rescue and said, "The black pump
. Cheaper than the other diesel." 1.27 Euro per litre. I pumped 22 Euros worth to fill the tank and went inside to pay. My non-chip BP card did now work. However, my Chase Saphire Card was successful. Yea!! We'll be back here if we need fuel again. Nice young man spoke pretty good English. Sandy bought a roll and orange juice for the road. I already had my Pop Tart.
And soon we were on our way to Arles. We had no problems with the credit cards at the tolls. However, I still say they could benefit from Open Road Tolling. What a waste of time.
Arles was the home of Vincent Van Gogh in the latter years of his life. He painted more than 200 works in the last two years of his life before committing suicide. It's also the place where he famously cut off his ear...Eww! We parked in parking garage, determined to get our ticket validated BEFORE even thinking of departing the garage.
We were hungry so ate at a Brasserie. Good food. Good people. Lots of tourists walking by. Then we headed out to find the Office of Tourism. They gave us some great ideas on what to see.
Arles has a good idea. They have copies of some of Van Gogh's paintings posted in 9 or 10 different sites around Arles on the exact spot where he sat and painted the canvas. It give you a great perspective on what he saw at the time
. Of course, sometimes the landscape had changed, but overall it was great. Between a couple of sights, several youngsters from the area stopped and started talking "some" English to us, culminating in "money." Not thanks. Then they said, in very clear English "F--- you!" We moved on.
Arles is also known for its Roman ruins. The Romans invaded Gaul (as they called France) in 58 B.C. under the reign of Julius Caesar. It was a vacation destination for Romans almost 2000 years ago. They still have a coliseum like the one in Rome, an amphitheater, ramparts and a large obelisk in the middle of town. Great Roman ruins town.
It had been threatening rain all day long, and finally about 4:00 pm just as we were seeing where Van Gogh painted "The Garden" (that was beautiful!), the skys opened up and we had a gully-washer of a rain storm. We took cover in the Brasserie where we had lunch, and drank and ate and waited it out
. About an hour later, we had one last Van Gogh sight to see, and am I ever glad we waited. It was the scene from the "sanatorium" where he had been a patient trying to recover from his mental illness. The scene is almost exactly the way it is in the painting. Wonderful job of restoring the courtyard and garden to the way it was when Van Gogh painted it. Well worth our hour long wait during the rain.
Getting out of the parking lot was easier this time....pay before you exit!!! But it was a tough drive home with tons of traffic and pouring down rain on us.
Finally made it back to our hotel and found a great little Italian place to eat dinner...at 10:00 pm!
Came back to the hotel and Sandy wrote the kids and her art history professor...I crashed after that hectic ride back home! Tomorrow it's Avignon and Pont du Gard.
Take care my friends and family!
Dave & Sandy
Petrol, Arles, Van Gogh and Roman Ruins
Monday, August 24, 2015
Aix-en-Provence - Update #3, Provence, France
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2025-02-12
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rbhaab
2015-08-26
I always love traveling virtually with you and Sandy!
Dave Colee
2015-08-28
Thanks for the note Barb! I'll send you a pic of Sandy in her new French sun hat! She looks lovely! Thanks for reading along. Dave