10 November 2012
Happy CEA trip #2!
This weekend, we are all going to Arles and Saintes-Maries de la Mer together,
both of which are closer to the South of France. Being day #1 of this weekend
trip, we started our adventure in Arles. We all woke up very early to catch a 6:00
AM train (which, let's be realistic, all of us slept on…) that took us to
Valence, and from there we caught another train that took us to Arles. Once we
arrived, we were welcomed with gray skies and a chilly drizzle, but no matter -
we were all still going to have a wonderful weekend! Our first stop was at our
hotel where we dropped off our things and pampered ourselves up a bit (we all
looked like wrecks after collapsing and falling asleep on two trains), and
after that we all went out to explore the markets in Arles. My goodness, these
French markets. Most of the time the markets sell the same things as the next,
such as spices, food, clothing, meats and cheeses, but the sights and smells
are always so new and inviting every time! We all shared a nice large bag of
croissants and pastries, and then we adventured through the town a bit. Arles
was such a cozy town. All of the houses had painted shutters and flowers on the
windowsills, little cats and little dogs running down the allies and barking
from doorways (well, at least the dogs were!), and some houses had magnificent
vines and flowers scaling the sides of the walls. It was just so quaint, I
could only dream of living in a cozy place like this someday! After adventuring
for a bit we sat down and some of us grabbed a bit to eat or a nice cup of ice
cream for an afternoon dessert, and after that we all met up with Patrick at
the hotel and we began our group adventure and guided tour in Arles. On the
tour, we visited the ancient Roman market and forum that was actually
underground, because it was built on a hillside, so half of the forum was above
ground, and half was underground. We visited the underground half, and it was
actually pretty cool! It was practically an ancient underground mall, who would
have thought?! After visiting the forum, we made our way further into town
where we visited an ancient Roman theatre, which was amazing for two reasons:
1) it's always amazing visiting these ancient theatres where Romans would put
on skits and plays so many years ago, and here it is in front of me today as if
it were just built yesterday, and 2) I ran into Tyler and Vince, two friends
from Northern who are studying in Aix-en-Provence right now, and they were in
Arles for the weekend on a class trip! What are the odds?! We only had a few
minutes to chat, but it was still very surprising and very pleasant to run into
them, in France, of all places! =) After visiting the theatre, our group made
our way to an ancient Roman coliseum right here in the city of Arles, standing
so tall and grand, like a mini coliseum that one would see in Rome! We explored
around inside for a bit, which was really awesome, and we learned about the
gladiator fights that would happen in this coliseums. In fact, contrary to
popular belief, gladiators never had the intent to kill anybody. The fights
were performed for entertainment and were rehearsed most of the time, and the
fights would stop after one gave up or once one was injured. These gladiators
and their performances were purchased by the rich nobles and lords of Roman
culture to entertain and please the people of the city, increasing their
popularity. I thought it was very interesting - I'm learning something new
every day! =) After exploring the coliseum and getting a wonderful view of the
city from one of the towers, we journeyed back into the center of town where we
saw, in person, the café that inspired van Gogh's
famous painting Le café de nuit.
This was the first time that I've seen an artist's inspiration up close and in
person, with my own eyes! It really was amazing and impressive! I stood there
and stared at the café, and imagine that years and years ago, van Gogh was
sitting in the same spot, painting the work of art that inspires us today. How
cool, too cool! After visiting the area
and learning a little more about van Gogh and his adventures to Arles, we had a
few hours of free time, so we decided to visit a local museum. It was rather
lack-luster and it was the type of museum that featured rocks sitting on…other
rocks, so we didn't really spend much time there. We head back to the hotel,
freshened up, and met Patrick in the lobby again, and we all made our way to
our group dinner. Our dinner was absolutely delicious, and not only was it
delicious, but it was fun! We were served a fish soup, and with it we were
served slices of tough bread, garlic cloves, shredded cheese, and a delicious
spicy sauce. What we had to do was put the garlic, cheese, and sauce on the
bread, chop it up, and toss it in the soup like little homemade croutons, and
you could either pour soup on the crouton and eat it like that, or let the
croutons soak up the soup and eat them like…well, croutons! The soup itself was
rather…fishy, but once I tossed the croutons in there, it was divine! Plus, for
dessert, we were served delicious pear tarts, which I have absolutely no
complaints about! =) After such a delicious feast, we left the restaurant and
made our way back to the hotel to freshen up before heading out into town for a
small drink. We found a pleasant bar near the hotel where we ordered some beers
and wine, and we sipped and chatted the night away. After such a lovely evening
among friends, we eventually made our way back to the hotel to call it a night,
and I freshened up, threw on some pajamas, made myself a nice cup of tea, and
eventually fell asleep - it wasn't hard, considering all that was on the hotel
TV was professional golf. Yawn!
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