This has been quite a day. I left the hotel at 7:20 and walked about 2 miles to the train station, it was nice to walk through some of the non-tourist areas of Nice. I took a train to Marseille where I had a 1 hour layover before my trip to Arles. I decided to have a McDonalds hamburger, it was a great idea. Granted, it wasn't cheap, 6.7euro (or about $10) for hamburger, fries and a coke, but I wish all McDonalds hamburgers were like that. It was on ciabatta roll, with fresh green leaf lettuce (not that white iceberg stuff), beautiful tomato and Swiss cheese, no secret sauce. The fries (frites) were up to Mickey D standards, delicious.
The trips to both Marseilles and Arles were beautiful. About half the trip to Marseilles was right along the Mediterranean. Between Cannes and Raphael, there were craggy rock formations (they looked volcanic) that were both close to shore and a little ways out. Who needs the crowds and status of Cannes and Monaco, I'll take that area. I'm also surprised at how many vineyards there are in Provence, I expected to see more open fields where the lavender normally is, but I've mostly seen the vineyards.
Arles was originally an ancient town and still has Roman ruins, an arena from 90AD, a theatre and Constantine baths from the 4th century. But of course, the real reason I wanted to go was to see where Van Gogh lived. There is some tourism, and the map notes where Van Gogh lived, the cafe in one of his paintings, the asylum where he was committed, but it was very uncrowded, kind of quiet, I felt like I was truly with the locals.
I think I know why Van Gogh went crazy, claustrophobia (I know, he was probably bi-polar). I was so excited that I was going to see his room, almost giddy, but then when I got up there, I found out the building was bombed in WWII. Oh well, the reproduction is supposed to be to scale. I think the room was 6 x 8, with a narrow spiral staircase that led up to it. I'd go crazy if I lived there too.
I'd like to make you feel good about some things you probably take for granted. You'd think that in a socialist state where the government is supposed to provide everything, you wouldn't have to pay for toilets, but no. I'm looking forward to not have to pay 50 cents every time I need to use the toilet or wash my hands. Other than the train station, Arles had only 1 public toilet and while the one in town was free, there was no toilet paper and I'm not sure it had been cleaned in the last year. I literally rolled my pants legs up above my knee before I went, the bathroom floor was that gross. Needless to say, it didn't have soap either, and it was a few hours before I was at a bathroom where I could really wash my hands. The other convenience I take for granted is paper towels. There are none here in France. Now, they can't be all ecologically minded, I don't see any recycling bins, but apparently, they only believe in the air blowers to dry your hands. I'm using 5 times as much hand creme as normal.
I was getting tired and decided to take an earlier train to the hotel in Sete. I bought a new ticket, waited a half hour and got on the train. Right before the second stop, I saw something I wanted to take a picture of and realized I left my camera in the ticket office. I got off the train in Nimes, stopped a station attendant and spoke in broken French to him that I left my camera in the ticket office in Arles and I wanted to go back there. He repeated back to me that my boyfriend was staying in a hotel in Arles. I held my hands up like I was taking a picture and repeated it again, he then understood, but didn't know how to help. He had me talk to a young woman who called Arles, they would call back in 10 minutes. In the meantime, I am praying like my life depended on it. At 15 minutes, the gal called them again, they did have it, but before she would tell me whether or not I should go pick it up, I had to wait 5 more minutes for another phone call. 10 minutes before the train left for Arles she told me "Go!"
I was praising God the entire 20 minutes back to Arles and adding a new request that I would be able to pick it up and then make my original train to Sete. There was only 10 minutes for me to race across the platform, down the stairs, under the tunnel up to the ticket office, get my camera and then get on another train back the way I came. When I got to the ticket office, they told me it was locked up and I would have to come back tomorrow. Oh my goodness did I panic. I was almost crying as I pleaded with them since I couldn't come back tomorrow. I said it didn't make sense that it would be locked up since they knew I was coming right away to retrieve it. I pleadingly asked if I could talk to someone else and one of the gals made a phone call. She then told me that they had my camera and to follow her. It was in another office and I got my camera 1 minute before the train was to depart. They told me not to worry, they would hold the train for me. I don't think I've said Merci so much at the same time or with as much passion. I also thanked God over and over (but probably not enough.)
On the train, I made friends with a 3 yr. old sitting behind me. Her name was Thalia Modeau (guessing on the spelling). We had fun playing hide and seek, patty cakes, her patting me on the head and talking. Not that I could understand much of what she was saying. I took a picture of her and she kept saying a phrase with "deux", but that's all I could understand. A lady sitting across from me said she wanted me to take a 2nd picture, so I did. I said "non" when she asked for a third.
The lady across from me asked me where I was getting off and when I said Sete, she said she was getting off there too and I could follow her. When I left the train and said "au revoir" to Thalia, she reached for me and gave me a kiss on both cheeks. When I got out to the platform, I knocked on her window and waved goodbye.
The hotel is outside of Sete, in the country almost. It has a nice sized room, with a full size closet (not that I need that) and as one of the ladies on the tour said, you could dance in the bathroom. We are eating at the hotel and when I arrived, the entire group greeted me with a cheer, I felt loved and by people I hardly know.
I'm going to go to bed early this evening, I'm looking forward to recovering from all the excitement today. By the way, I enjoy hearing from you all as to what's going on back home. Thanks to you that have written to me at singndance70@gmail.com. Please keep them coming.
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