Arles

We decided there wasn't enough left in Marseille to occupy us for another whole day, so instead went up the train line to Arles. Unfortunately the first 40 minutes of this day trip was spent on the train waiting for it to depart.

But Arles was worth the wait

While now a backwater, the town was a major centre in Roman times, and still important in the medieval era, so it still has very prominent Roman remains. Above all it has an amphitheatre. Unfortunately we couldn't visit it since it was being used for bull-fighting. No, not solely a Spanish pursuit. So we could only see the outside.

To give an idea of its scale, and the extent to which things went down hill after the Roman empire dissolved, most of the medieval town, including 20 houses and three churches, all huddled inside the edifice until it was cleared out in 1830.

Even without the Roman remans, it is a pretty French provincial town to walk around.

We popped into one spot that offered a free art exhibition. It was worth the slight detour.

Thibault found us a posh place for lunch. Posh but not especially expensive. Food was superb

After lunch, back to Roman remains. Here a tiny fragment of the ancient Roman temple still stands - just the two pillars and a bit of pediment.

And while the Roman forum above has all long gone, the basement beneath it is all still there and can be visited, in all its atmospheric dankness - the Cryptoporticus.

Back above ground and moving on nearly a thousand years, there was the cathedral to visit. 

As attractive as the gothic cathedral was, the real beauty is in the cloisters next door.

An interesting use of plastic packaging - sculpture

Thibault and Clarissa patiently waiting for me.....

In addition to the amphitheatre, the old theatre of ancient Rome is still there albeit not in tact. But it is still used for performances - hence the metalwork you can see below

Next on our list of Roman sites, the cemetery  Les Alsycamps. Weird how graveyards can be quite romantic when ruinous.

A bit of a trek from there we cane to the town's Roman museum, in a brand new purpose built structure.

One of its major exhibits, and indeed one which led to them constructing an extension to what was intended to be a triangular building, was this 31 metre Roman cargo barge found sunk to the bottom of the River Rhone with its 27 ton cargo of building materials still in/on it

And finally to wrap up our cultural day we went to the town's art gallery the Musee Reattu. which houses a lot of works by the museum's founder Reattu (no I had never heard of him either - grandiose 18th century painter)

But there are more modern works, such as this Picasso room

Back to Marseille for an excellent last night dinner, in pouring rain.

Then next morning up early for train back home. Frustratingly given it was our return, this was the first day with clear blue skies having had leaden grey pretty much throughout our stay. The Arc looks superb with a blue background

Lebanese lunch in Paris, also very good even though our second choice to a steak house which looked (and smelled) much less appealing than the reviews. While the restaurant looked nothing much from the outside it really had a feature period wall!

And back home before 6pm, in time to catch a rainbow over Palmers Green!