What to do in one day in Arles with the wind blowing dust in our eyes and rain threatening to pour down at any moment. We started by walking the city and then visiting the Amphitheatre (Arena d’ Arles), built by the Romans circa 90 AD, which held 21,000 people for chariot races, gladiators and more light entertainment.
Phyllicia’s friend Martin, an architect from Nîmes, met us and we walked to lunch, which was, of course, delicious.
The first rain drops came down so we opted for the Van Gogh Foundation exhibit of work by Van Gogh, Picasso, Monticelli, Nash, Chirico and more.
We said farewell to Martin, bought a bottle of wine and hid from the rain before dinner at reservation-only Pergola, where we learned that if you can’t run with the bulls or fight the bulls, you can eat a bull rib and it’s delicious, as is the dome du chocolat and everything else.
Tomorrow we get on the road to Les Baux de Provence, Avignon and then on to St. Emilion.
With Lyon as our home base, we carved out a 6-day tour of Provence and the Bordeaux region. I researched some routes from other blogs, so I’m returning the favor.
We left Lyon early down the A7 to Avignon and headed east for a lazy drive through western Provence to Arles. First stop was L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, where the Sorgue River was split into channels to drive water wheels, and now is fueled by what some say are more antiques dealers in the little town – some 300 of them – more than anywhere else in France, except Paris.
From there, we continued through the Luberon mountain to beautiful Fontaine-de-Vaucluse, and Gordes, perched on a hilltop.
And on to Roussillon, a multi-colored village built on ochre, where we spent hours before making our way to Arles before dark.
On our third day in Lyon, we boarded the furnicular to La Basilique Notre Dame de Fourviere, a 19th-century basilica with 4 octagonal towers. From there we had lunch at Daniel & Denise restaurant, a Michelin rated bouchon (Traditional Lyonnaise restaurant) recommended by our taxi driver and it lived up to the recommendation. From there we crossed the Saone and took the one-hour boat north and then south to the confluence of the Saone and Rhone rivers with sightings of the orange cheese, green pencil sharpener and the Confluence Musée. Dinner with Phyllicia was at the Paul Bocuse Brassiere L’Ouest, a massive restaurant with wonderful food.
The next day we strolled the markets for lunch and stopped at the Gadagne Musée, just a few doors down from our apartment in Vieux Lyon. We visited the hidden cafe, a charming 4th floor cafe where we had espresso and chocolate. We crossed the river, seeing the sculpture of a man saving himself, and walked to Bellecour, the largest square (rectangle?) in Europe, and on to the Rhone and the long-renovated Hotel Dieu
, a massive complex with shopping — all integrated in the old buildings. Phyllicia arrived to meet us at the La Cave de Voyageurs for a tasting o
f local wines with charcuterie — if only we had known they were bringing in a freshly roasted pork confit and putting it on the bar.
Tomorrow we’re off to Provence…
The French do go on strike. Landing in Paris, we found Air France workers on strike, forcing us first to deplane down steep stairs, and then rent a car for the five-hour drive to Lyon — train workers also were on strike so there were no high speed trains that make the trip in two hours.
We dropped the car and took a taxi to our apartment in Vieux Lyon, the charming area built in the sixteenth century during the Renaissance. We climbed four flights to our apartment and then headed out for lunch and a walk along the Rhone River to enjoy the sunny, 75-degree day. Phyllicia arrived and we walked to the famous L’Ourson qui boi for a spectacular taste of Lyonnaise cuisine.
We had a quiet second day that began at Cosy Corner, a cafe below our apartment, and explored our immediate neighborhood in Vieux Lyon, strolling through the cobblestone paths and learning a bit about the traboules (walkways) through buildings once used by the silk trade to transport goods and later by the French resistance to elude Nazis. Our trip was just beginning, but we’re in love with Lyon already, its beauty, size, people, wine and of course the cuisine.
