Riviera Thomas Hardy - Burgundy, the River Rhone & Provence – Avignon>Lyon – Day 3 - Arles

 

Day 3 – Saturday 13 September 2025 - Arles

Van Gogh was a patient here when it was a hospital The courtyard in the middle has been replanted as shown in his paintings.

We were rafted outside Phoenix Arabelle. As this is a Scylla boat to the same design we could walk through its reception to get to the land. We did that at 09:00 for a walking tour of Arles. There was a choice of two, one with an emphasis on Roman history which we took, the other with an emphasis on Vincent van Gogh which Dan & Krisie took.

Our guide was a fast walker who didn’t look around to see if her group was with her. Dan & Krisie’s guide spotted  a pickpocket gang who’d robbed a previous group. He pointed at them and shouted out “pickpockets” and “shame on you” and called out to other guides “there are the pickpockets”. They were four young women, one was wearing dark glasses and baseball cap, one had her hair concealing her face, and one was wearing a face mask.

We couldn’t go in the Amphitheatre. At the previous night’s port talk the Cruise Director said that the closure “was sprung” on her, but it was closed to the public for the scheduled annual of bull fight festival, and posters had the date and tickets had been on sale.

For lunch I had Crisp Corn & Cauliflower Fritters - and jolly tasty too.

Dan at Pont du Gard - photo by Krisie

At 13:30 was a coach excursion to the Roman Aqueduct Pont du Gard 1h10m away. I had really wanted to go, but it was by now raining heavily and it was forecast to get worse with thunderstorms. I didn’t want to have to walk 20 minutes over wet stones in the rain to the aqueduct so we decided not to go. But Dan & Krisie were made of sterner stuff. I lent Krisie my waterproof and the room umbrella.

As soon as the coaches left the boat said up-river back to Avignon where the Pont du Gard excursion would board and the boat set off for Viviers.

Dan & Krisie returned soaked but glad they’d gone. Krisie even managed to conquer her fear of heights and walk across the Pont.

Peter, Joan, Dan & Krisie at dinner - photo by Krisie

 Location: On the Rhone cruising to Viviers.