John Edward Cooper’s Notes

DAY 2 - THE CAMARGUE


Flamingos in the Camargue

After breakfast we leave Aix and head for the nearby coast and the delta of the great River Rhône, known as the Camargue, now designated a National Park. We will take a short boat ride from Les Saintes Maries de la Mer with the hope of seeing some of the local wildlife such as white horses, black bulls and pink flamingoes.

This afternoon we continue to Arles, the Pearl of Provence arriving in time for lunch. We have a short walking tour of this superb city, taking in the incredibly well-preserved Roman amphitheatre, the theatre built by the Emperor Augustus and the Forum, once the city’s heart, followed by free time before our return to the hotel.

We will have dinner in a local restaurant this evening.

Janet wrote, “Not much sleep”; I had no complaint on that score, though. She got up, ca.6am; and after she vacated the bathroom, I used it.… After that, Janet packed all the staff that we’d needed overnight into the one of the two cases that she’d left open, and we padlocked it and strapped it up. Then we went down for breakfast. “Thus far,” Janet noted: “sunny outside.” The area behind the counter where a brigade of chefs had worked yesterday evening was staffed now by perhaps one cook for orders of eggs, pancakes, and such things. On the counter were round bains-maries with hinged lids containing bacon, sausages, mushrooms, etc. When I turned the knob on the dispenser containing cornflakes, all it did was crush them into smaller and smaller pieces, till I sought the help of one of the servers who removed a cover from the bottom. We had orange juice, made from fresh oranges fed from a wire hopper down a wire chute into a crusher; this machine kept going wrong, though, and needed constantly repeated attention from the staff. I had bread and a selection of meats. Finally, coffee from a machine: I selected the “café long” option. Then we went back to the room. The arrangement was to leave in the room our cases and other baggage that we weren’t taking out with us, for the hotel staff to transfer to the new room when it had been vacated and prepared for us. As for the valuables, Chris Brown had offered to put them in his room-safe; so I took Janet’s little leather satchel containing them down to the lobby to give them to him.


Tuesday 16 May 2023 08:12:10
View from the hotel room across Rue du Bon Pasteur, Aix-en-Provence


Tuesday 16 May 2023 08:12:40
View from the hotel room across Rue du Bon Pasteur, Aix-en-Provence


Tuesday 16 May 2023 08:13:46
View from the hotel room across Rue du Bon Pasteur, Aix-en-Provence: swifts


Tuesday 16 May 2023 08:19:50
View from the hotel room across Rue du Bon Pasteur, Aix-en-Provence

The last photo but one illustrates the large number of swifts we would see in many places. We went down for our 8.30am rendezvous in the lobby; then made our way up Rue des Étuves, crossing Boulevard Jean Jaurès at the pedestrian crossing and boarding the waiting coach for our departure to the Camargue and its capital Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. There’d been some mention of rotating the occupancy of the forward seats; but Janet and I decided to sit on the back row anyway, so that she could occupy the middle seat and stretch her legs out into the aisle. On a number of our excursions, including this one, Chris handed out maps.[i]

[i] The first map, below, though, is from the trip to the Luberon Mountains on 19 May 2023; but it illustrates today’s travels better than the map on the single sheet of three maps that Chris handed out today.

Map with our starting point and places visited highlighted in yellow and the limit of our river cruise added by me in red
Click to enlarge this and other images.


“Commune d’Arles” map, showing more roads than the previous map, and also indicating the location of Bac du Sauvage, the limit of our river cruise

There was some protest going on in our first destination Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, Chris told us, and it seemed unlikely that we’d be able to get there for our boat ride, for the protesters had put up a barrier on the road. It was something to do with an annual pilgrimage of Romani people to the town later in the month, and a change of regulations introduced by the authorities without consulting the people involved.
 The town Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer was named after the three Marys who were the first witnesses to the empty tomb at the resurrection of Jesus; Mark 16:1–6, RSV:

And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome [called by medieval tradition “Mary Salome”], bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week they went to the tomb when the sun had risen. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?” And looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back—it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe; and they were amazed. And he said to them, “Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him.

“De-la-Mer” comes from the aforementioned tradition that afterwards, the three Marys escaped the Jewish persecution of Christians in Judaea and travelled across the sea by boat, living in the Camargue the rest of their lives and helping to bring the Christian faith to France. There was mention in this context also of Mary the mother of Jesus, but she couldn’t have been one of them, because she ended her earthly days with the apostle John and we have seen her house near Ephesus; John 19:25–27, RSV:

But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

 What struck me on our journeys this week was the frequency with which we passed blue “péage” signs, after which the road would widen into many lanes passing between barriered tollbooths under a gantry with “↑” and “x” signals. Our coach was equipped, though, to go along one of the “télépéage” lanes (albeit at a crawl to avoid hitting the slow-to-rise barrier).
 In the UK there has been a hoo-ha about the dangers (and cost) of “smart motorways”, which have variable speed limits or information about traffic conditions displayed on electronic gantry signs; but in France, seemingly all the autoroutes are so equipped. One such sign proclaimed “Vent violent”! That was around the time when Chris’s commentary mentioned “le Mistral”, the cold and dry strong wind that blows down from the north and is funnelled along the Rhône River valley towards the Mediterranean Sea. He pointed out the frequently occurring rows of trees planted upwind of houses and crops to protect them from le Mistral. (I think I first encountered the word “Mistral” in Moorcock’s The Jewel in the Skull.)
 The name of transport and logistics company Kuehne + Nagel was familiar to me from working at the Jobcentre, many years ago now; did they have a depot at Immingham? Anyway, just to the west of Salon-de-Provence, I saw passing on the right side white metal-clad buildings and blue trailers with that name on them; then, shortly after that, Chris pointed out on the same side a trotting racecourse: “Hippodrome de la Crau”.


Tuesday 16 May 2023 09:12:58
En route to the Camargue: trees bent by the Mistral


Tuesday 16 May 2023 09:13:28
En route to the Camargue: trees and other vegetation bent by the Mistral


Tuesday 16 May 2023 09:28:32
En route to the Camargue: crossing the Grand Rhône at Arles, looking downriver

After turning to the south and entering the Camargue, we passed wheat fields, and other fields that were flooded for growing rice (typically, red rice). Much of the Camargue is still salt marsh where flamingos thrive in caustic soda-rich conditions, but vast areas have been desalinated and salt production has been replaced by agriculture.


Tuesday 16 May 2023 09:37:36
The Camargue: field flooded for rice cultivation

The herders of the semi-feral black Camargue cattle in the wetlands are called “gardians”. The bulls are used in a type of bloodless bullfighting, the objective of which is to snatch rosettes from the bull’s head and horns. We passed a number of gardian houses, with the northern face curved like a church apse, to resist the Mistral wind. I tried but failed to photograph one of them; cf. “13:02:52”, below. Other things that I couldn’t photograph as we proceeded were: a group of white horses (not horned, though, as they were in The Jewel in the Skull); some black bulls (not white, as in The Jewel in the Skull); another small group; swans on a lagoon; a heron; and a glimpse of flamingos on a lagoon on the other side (too small to be saddled and ridden, though, as in you-know-what!).
 On the approach to the town centre the protesters had just about finished making their point and the barrier had been moved aside somewhat, but our driver Michaël still had to inch the coach extremely slowly and carefully though the tiny gap. Just before we stopped on the road running parallel to the sea we turned right at a roundabout with a sculpture on it of a Camargue bull and a mounted gardian carrying a lance (not a “flame lance”!). We were given some free time for necessities and refreshments, for which Janet and I just crossed the road to a brasserie called La Siesta. Because of what I’d read on the coffee machine I asked for “café long”; it was slightly less “long” than what the coffee machine had produced: perhaps twice the volume of an espresso.


Tuesday 16 May 2023 10:17:14
Refreshments at La Siesta, 10 Avenue Van Gogh, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer


Tuesday 16 May 2023 10:32:46
La Siesta, 10 Avenue Van Gogh, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer

Then our group met near the bullfighting arena, and proceeded the short distance to the harbour to board a waiting boat.


Tuesday 16 May 2023 10:36:12
Bull sculpture outside Arènes des Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, with front legs together to one side, like the galloping bull in the Popeye cartoon



Tuesday 16 May 2023 10:38:20
A second bull sculpture not far from the first, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer

It didn’t occur to me till I saw the photos afterwards that the boat was called “The Four Marys”. We have four Marys in the scriptures quoted earlier, if one includes Salome and the mother of Jesus.


Tuesday 16 May 2023 10:44:52
About to board Les Quatre Maries II, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer

Les Quatre Maries II departed at 11am. Janet sat in the saloon, but I sat in the open area towards the bow. I left my hat with Janet because of the very strong wind. My seat near the cabin afforded me shade from the sun a fair bit of the time. In the open sea there was much pitching and rolling of the vessel, repeatedly sending spray up and over into the area where I was sitting. Fortunately, most of it missed me. “I wasn’t seasick,” Janet wrote, “[but it was] touch and go a couple of times.”


Tuesday 16 May 2023 11:13:52
Aboard Les Quatre Maries II, approaching the mouth of the Petit Rhône

As we proceeded up the Petit Rhône I photographed as many birds as I could, but an egret and an oystercatcher escaped my lens. And perhaps some mallards were not of any interest to it.


Tuesday 16 May 2023 11:18:28
Aboard Les Quatre Maries II, approaching a bend in the Petit Rhône


Tuesday 16 May 2023 11:22:24
Aboard Les Quatre Maries II, passing paddle cruiser Tiki III on the Petit Rhône


Tuesday 16 May 2023 11:26:18
Aboard Les Quatre Maries II on the Petit Rhône


Tuesday 16 May 2023 11:28:52
Aboard Les Quatre Maries II on the Petit Rhône: yellow irises


Tuesday 16 May 2023 11:29:48
Aboard Les Quatre Maries II on the Petit Rhône: fishing net


Tuesday 16 May 2023 11:34:12
Aboard Les Quatre Maries II on the Petit Rhône: cormorant


Tuesday 16 May 2023 11:34:20
Aboard Les Quatre Maries II on the Petit Rhône: cormorant


Tuesday 16 May 2023 11:37:06
Aboard Les Quatre Maries II on the Petit Rhône: swans


Tuesday 16 May 2023 11:43:24
Aboard Les Quatre Maries II on the Petit Rhône: Camargue horse


Tuesday 16 May 2023 11:45:16
Aboard Les Quatre Maries II on the Petit Rhône: heron


Tuesday 16 May 2023 11:48:48
Aboard Les Quatre Maries II on the Petit Rhône: Camargue horse and cattle


Tuesday 16 May 2023 11:49:12
Aboard Les Quatre Maries II on the Petit Rhône: Camargue cattle


Tuesday 16 May 2023 11:49:34
Aboard Les Quatre Maries II on the Petit Rhône: Camargue horse


Tuesday 16 May 2023 11:50:34
Aboard Les Quatre Maries II on the Petit Rhône: Camargue horses and cattle


Tuesday 16 May 2023 11:50:46
Aboard Les Quatre Maries II on the Petit Rhône: Camargue cattle


Tuesday 16 May 2023 11:50:56
Aboard Les Quatre Maries II on the Petit Rhône: Camargue colt


Tuesday 16 May 2023 11:51:22
Aboard Les Quatre Maries II on the Petit Rhône: Camargue horses and cattle


Tuesday 16 May 2023 11:51:38
Aboard Les Quatre Maries II on the Petit Rhône: Camargue cattle


Tuesday 16 May 2023 11:51:52
Aboard Les Quatre Maries II on the Petit Rhône: Camargue bull

We turned around on reaching a ferry, the road on the western side of which would take one to Aigues-Mortes (where Count Brass, Lord Guardian of the Kamarg, had his castle in The Jewel in the Skull).


Tuesday 16 May 2023 11:55:38
Aboard Les Quatre Maries II on the Petit Rhône: the Bac du Sauvage ferry, cable-guided but propelled by paddles


Tuesday 16 May 2023 11:56:04
Aboard Les Quatre Maries II on the Petit Rhône: western destination of the Bac du Sauvage ferry


Tuesday 16 May 2023 12:08:46
Aboard Les Quatre Maries II, returning down the Petit Rhône


Tuesday 16 May 2023 12:20:40
Aboard Les Quatre Maries II: mouth of the Petit Rhône, mole to the west


Tuesday 16 May 2023 12:20:50
Aboard Les Quatre Maries II: mouth of the Petit Rhône, east side


Tuesday 16 May 2023 12:25:00
Aboard Les Quatre Maries II: Church of the Saintes Maries de la Mer


Tuesday 16 May 2023 12:27:16
Aboard Les Quatre Maries II: returning to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer

Back ashore we were given a time to meet up again of “13:45” (as I wrote it), so Janet and I crossed the road and went up the street ahead of us, Avenue Frédéric Mistral, stopping at one of the first restaurants we came to: Le Mistral. I chose a chorizo pizza, and Janet asked for a plain mixed salad and some bread.


Tuesday 16 May 2023 13:02:10
Lunch at Le Mistral, 5 Avenue Frédéric Mistral, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer


Tuesday 16 May 2023 13:02:38
Lunch at Le Mistral, 5 Avenue Frédéric Mistral, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer: image of a mounted gardian on the water bottle, which originally contained liquor


Tuesday 16 May 2023 13:02:52
Lunch at Le Mistral, 5 Avenue Frédéric Mistral, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer: image of herded Camargue cattle and the house of a gardian on the same water bottle

Unfortunately, after we had settled there, we were all serenaded very loudly and unwelcomely intrusively by a man singing and playing a guitar in Spanish style, who then passed a hat round. Whether we looked unreceptive or unresponsive, or not, I don’t know, but the hat bypassed us. “He had a great voice, but it was too f— loud for the size of the place,” Janet commented. “My head pounded. I wanted to tell him, ‘Shut up now, please!’”




Tuesday 16 May 2023 13:29:32
Le Mistral, 5 Avenue Frédéric Mistral, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer

We continued northwards along Avenue Frédéric Mistral,—


Tuesday 16 May 2023 13:30:28
Proceeding northwards along Avenue Frédéric Mistral, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer

—turning right 120 yards or so further along to go to see the town’s interesting fortress-cum-church.[ii]

[ii] Dedicated, according to Wikipedia, “to Mary, mother of Jesus and to The Three Marys” — so, four Marys again, as in the name of the boat Les Quatre Maries II.

Tuesday 16 May 2023 13:32:26
Church of the Saintes Maries de la Mer: west end


Tuesday 16 May 2023 13:33:38
Church of the Saintes Maries de la Mer: apse and bell tower at the east end


Tuesday 16 May 2023 13:34:36
Church of the Saintes Maries de la Mer: apse and bell tower, top


Tuesday 16 May 2023 13:34:46
Church of the Saintes Maries de la Mer: apse and bell tower, bottom


Tuesday 16 May 2023 13:35:38
Church of the Saintes Maries de la Mer: bell tower

We didn’t, unfortunately, have time to go inside, because our rendezvous, back near the arena and bull sculptures, was in less than ten minutes’ time.


Tuesday 16 May 2023 13:36:34
Returning along one of the side streets from the Church of the Saintes Maries de la Mer to our rendezvous


Tuesday 16 May 2023 13:36:34 (detail)
Returning along one of the side streets from the Church of the Saintes Maries de la Mer to our rendezvous

Thence, to Arles.


Tuesday 16 May 2023 13:46:00
Roundabout at the start of the D570 road from Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer to Arles: sculpture of mounted gardian with lance and Camargue bull


Tuesday 16 May 2023 13:48:50
Second roundabout on the D570 road from Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer to Arles: model of lighthouse

We stopped briefly by a lagoon to see a wading flamingo. The bird looked proportionately built till one considered that there was as much leg under the water as above it.


Tuesday 16 May 2023 13:50:56
The Camargue: flamingo


Tuesday 16 May 2023 13:51:26
The Camargue: flamingo


Tuesday 16 May 2023 13:55:26
The Camargue: salt flats


Arles, with routes travelled or walked highlighted in yellow, and a couple of locations added by me in red
You’ll need to click to enlarge the image to see these clearly.

From where the coach stopped in Boulevard des Lices, Arles, Chris led us the short distance to the Place de la République,—


Tuesday 16 May 2023 14:37:52
Place de la République, Arles, with obelisk covered with scaffolding and Hôtel de Ville behind it

—from where he conducted us on a circular walk of somewhat over ½-mile, initially along the alley skirting around the Church of St. Trophimus and its adjacent cloister,—


Tuesday 16 May 2023 14:38:16
Proceeding along Rue du Cloitre, Arles


Tuesday 16 May 2023 14:39:50
Proceeding along Rue du Cloitre, Arles

—from where we could see the early first-century Roman theatre.


Tuesday 16 May 2023 14:40:38
Roman Theatre, seen from Rue du Cloitre, Arles


Tuesday 16 May 2023 14:41:18
Roman Theatre, seen from Rue du Cloitre, Arles

From there, we turned right, eastwards along Rue de la Calabe, from where I got further glimpses through metal gates in arches in the wall of the theatre (but nothing that looked well through the camera lens), then left along the road going around the late first-century Roman amphitheatre.


Tuesday 16 May 2023 14:44:36
Roman Amphitheatre, seen from Rond-point des Arènes, Arles


Tuesday 16 May 2023 14:44:58
Roman Amphitheatre, seen from Rond-point des Arènes, Arles


Tuesday 16 May 2023 14:47:34
Roman Amphitheatre, seen from further around Rond-point des Arènes, Arles


Tuesday 16 May 2023 14:47:46
Roman Amphitheatre, seen from further around Rond-point des Arènes, Arles

We made something like a quarter of a circuit of that, before turning left, westwards for some 270 yards, along Rue des Arènes,—


Tuesday 16 May 2023 14:47:56
Proceeding up Rue des Arènes, Arles

—which brought us to the north-east corner of the Place du Forum,—


Tuesday 16 May 2023 14:52:32
Place du Forum, Arles, seen from its north-east corner

—along which was a café (now called Café Van Gogh) painted (i.e. on canvas!) in 1888 by Vincent van Gogh, after he came to Arles from Paris. The café was painted yellow in the 1990s to look like the warm gaslight colours of Van Gogh’s painting — but it wasn’t that colour when Van Gogh was there!


Tuesday 16 May 2023 14:54:22
Café Van Gogh on the south-east corner of Place du Forum, Arles


Vincent van Gogh, Terrasse du café le soir or Terrasse de café sur la place du Forum, oil on canvas, September 1888

From there we continued southwards along Rue du Palais. Chris wondered whether we could enter and go through the building ahead of us;—


Tuesday 16 May 2023 14:55:48
Banc à degrés (13th century city courthouse) on Plan de la Cour, Arles

—but we couldn’t, so we went through the building to the left of that, the Hôtel de Ville.


Tuesday 16 May 2023 14:56:42
Entering the Hôtel de Ville (17th century town hall) from Plan de la Cour, Arles


Tuesday 16 May 2023 14:57:40
Inside the Hôtel de Ville, Arles

And so we arrived back at our starting point.


Tuesday 16 May 2023 14:58:46
Back in Place de la République, Arles (cf. “14:37:52”)


Tuesday 16 May 2023 14:58:46 (detail)
Chris Brown and some of the members of our Riviera tour group

There was now free time till we would meet up again at, as I wrote, “16:15”, on Boulevard des Lices.


Tuesday 16 May 2023 14:59:32
Church (formerly Cathedral) of St. Trophimus on the north-east corner of Place de la République, Arles

The door of the Church of St. Trophimus was ajar, but there was a notice prohibiting entry to visitors just then while a service was in progress.


Tuesday 16 May 2023 14:59:32 (detail)
Church of St. Trophimus, Arles: entrance door (right) with a notice barring entrance while a service was in progress


Tuesday 16 May 2023 15:02:12
Hôtel de Ville on the north side of Place de la République, Arles


Tuesday 16 May 2023 15:03:54
Church of St. Anne of Arles on the north-west corner of Place de la République, Arles

So Janet and I headed south along Rue Jean Jaurès and went to the Bar du Marché on the corner of Boulevard des Lices.


Tuesday 16 May 2023 15:12:12
Refreshments at Bar du Marché, 8 Boulevard des Lices, Arles



After that, we found the church open for visitors.


Plan of the Church of St. Trophimus, Arles, with the vocabulary in red which I use in the descriptions that follow


Tuesday 16 May 2023 15:24:30
Church of St. Trophimus, Arles: nave, looking east


Tuesday 16 May 2023 15:24:38
Church of St. Trophimus, Arles: nave, looking east


Tuesday 16 May 2023 15:25:38
Church of St. Trophimus, Arles: south aisle


Tuesday 16 May 2023 15:26:14
Church of St. Trophimus, Arles: north side: two chapels and pulpit


Tuesday 16 May 2023 15:26:26
Church of St. Trophimus, Arles: north side: clerestory windows


Tuesday 16 May 2023 15:30:30
Church of St. Trophimus, Arles: north side: pulpit


Tuesday 16 May 2023 15:31:18
Church of St. Trophimus, Arles: north side: clerestory windows


Tuesday 16 May 2023 15:33:32
Church of St. Trophimus, Arles: chapel on the south side


Tuesday 16 May 2023 15:34:16
Church of St. Trophimus, Arles: chapel on the south side


Tuesday 16 May 2023 15:35:28
Church of St. Trophimus, Arles: ambulatory and chapels


Tuesday 16 May 2023 15:36:08
Church of St. Trophimus, Arles: ambulatory and chapels


Tuesday 16 May 2023 15:36:32
Church of St. Trophimus, Arles: ambulatory and chapels


Tuesday 16 May 2023 15:37:22
Church of St. Trophimus, Arles: altar and nave, viewed from the apse


Tuesday 16 May 2023 15:38:18
Church of St. Trophimus, Arles: ambulatory and north aisle


Tuesday 16 May 2023 15:39:14
Church of St. Trophimus, Arles: Chapel of Relics on the north ambulatory


Tuesday 16 May 2023 15:40:40
Church of St. Trophimus, Arles: chapel north of the crossing


Tuesday 16 May 2023 15:42:54
Church of St. Trophimus, Arles: altar and apse


Tuesday 16 May 2023 15:43:10
Church of St. Trophimus, Arles: windows in the apse


Tuesday 16 May 2023 15:46:58
Church of St. Trophimus, Arles: part of the west façade and bell tower


Tuesday 16 May 2023 15:50:02
Hôtel de Ville and Church of St. Trophimus, Arles

Janet recalls, “I used the public toilet (I’ve used worse!), then we headed off to our pick-up point. We were a bit early, so had a stroll around a nearby park.” We returned to Boulevard des Lices about 20 minutes before the appointed time, so had a look in the Jardin d’Été near the rendezvous point.


Tuesday 16 May 2023 15:56:48
Jardin d’Été, Arles


Tuesday 16 May 2023 15:57:36
Jardin d’Été, Arles


Tuesday 16 May 2023 15:57:52
Jardin d’Été, Arles: bronze head of Vincent Van Gogh by William Earl Singer, 1969


Tuesday 16 May 2023 15:59:26
Jardin d’Été, Arles: southern part of the Roman Theatre


Tuesday 16 May 2023 16:00:32
Jardin d’Été, Arles: sculpture of Niobe by Hippolyte Lefèbvre, 1897

We were all aboard and had set out by “16:15”.


Tuesday 16 May 2023 16:15:08
Back aboard the coach: at the end of Boulevard des Lices, about to continue along Avenue Victor Hugo, Arles

Chris pointed out a structure on the right as we were passing it: the tower of the LUMA Arles arts centre, designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, featuring some 11,000 angled reflective stainless steel panels, taking inspiration from Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night painted in Arles in 1889.


Tuesday 16 May 2023 16:17:28
LUMA Arles, Parc des Ateliers, 35 Avenue Victor Hugo, Arles


Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night, oil on canvas, September 1889

Back at the hotel, our cases had been transferred from the first-floor room to a fourth-floor one, one with a walk-in shower and a W.C. in the same room. It struck me as odd, that a room suitable for people with mobility problems should be situated at the top of the hotel! We were issued with two key-cards in a card holder.





But we couldn’t open the cases without the padlock, which was in Janet’s satchel, which we’d given to Chris Brown for safekeeping. So we went off in search of him. We didn’t find him initially, and that, we found out when our paths did finally cross, was because he’d gone off in search of us! He’d been up to the fourth floor, knocked on our door, got no response, and gone down again. Anyway, he gave us the satchel; we went back to the room, unlocked, unstrapped and opened the cases; Janet did the unpacking, and I set up my computer on the dressing table/desk. I transferred 103 photos from the camera’s SD card to the WD Elements HDD (18:08–18:10), later (18:48), as a back-up, copying them also to “Pictures” on the computer. As regards Wi-Fi, the computer reported “No connections are available”. From time to time it would report a weak signal, but was unable to connect to it. That was the situation for the whole week. If I’d had the Asus computer with me, it might have fared better; but I’d left that at home. Did this and that, including sorting out my medicaments and shaving. I started to look at the photos in Windows Photo Viewer, intending to rotate 90° those that needed it. On the “old” Samsung computer, running Windows 7, photos taken in “portrait” would appear as “landscape” and have to be rotated. On this “new” Samsung, though, running Windows 10, they already appeared as “portrait”. So I abandoned that task. When I’d come to open the images in Photoshop to edit them, I thought though, “portrait” images would appear as “landscape” and need to be rotated. In my notebook I’d scribbled “Rendezvous 19:15 at the road”. This was for our first dinner included in the holiday price. I’d written “at the road”, because this morning we’d met first in the hotel lobby, but this evening we were to meet where the coach would be parked in Boulevard Jean Jaurès. So we set out for “Le Lôtraix Restaurant”[iii] on the outskirts of the town to the west.

[iii] The website of this establishment has the name as “Lautraix” (which would be pronounced the same), but the logo has elements of both spellings:

Our choices for this evening


Open Street Map with Hôtel Aquabella and La Lôtraix Restaurant added and highlighted in yellow


Image from the “Lautraix” website

I had no complaints about the evening. There was a fair abundance of wine, as well as quite acceptable food. But although Chris had communicated Janet’s dietary requirement to them, it hadn’t been catered for. She was served the same “braised beef with vegetables” as others who had chosen it, which contained garlic. She hadn’t chosen cod because compared with other fish she finds it relatively “unfishlike” and tasteless. She accepted it when the beef was taken away, but found it to be “swimming in olive oil”. In her words: “It was a good evening but, because of ‘the garlic fiasco’ (and also the olive oil), I only had an olive, a breadstick and some tasteless cod (the whole dish was swimming in olive oil and I couldn’t eat it). It was ca.10pm before we arrived back at the hotel, and ca.11.05pm before I was in bed. Hope I sleep tonight. I could do with an early night: I’m not used to such late hours!” … Edited four of the photos taken earlier (22:55–23:12), but the small screen with only 600px vertical resolution wasn’t really big enough for the task. As I suspected earlier, the one image that was “portrait” appeared as “landscape” and had to be rotated. Then I shut down the computer, and got ready for bed.

[Wednesday 17 May 2023]