On The Road In France:
Always remember the golden rule – if there are photos there is a story!
It’s a beautiful Sunday headed to the upper 70s and we have nothing on the schedule. I’ll admit, nothing on the schedule seems to be the rule, rather than the exception.
Thursday was the French holiday and our scheduled day to go to the St. Remy to see the ruins of Glanum and to see the hospital where Vincent Van Gogh spent 53 weeks in 1889-90. This was a trip focused on the kids.
Again, the countryside of France is captivating and there are towns and villages overflowing with charm at every turn. We got off the auto route as soon as possible on the way to St. Remy and headed to Eyguieres. Why? Well, it was on the map and it might be interesting. It’s a town of 6,400 and seems a bit upscale. Marlene and I have determined we’re going to head back at a later date to explore further. Most interestingly, leaving Eyguieres we came upon an overgrown grandstand and pulled over. We had discovered a very small bull ring arena and a sign indicating they are having bull fights on June 8. There’s lots of bull fighting in Portugal and Spain, but it’s also quite popular in southwestern France and all the way over to the Arles area, which is where we were. It looks like large trees have grown in and amongst the arena over the years. There’s a photo looking into the arena. Another photo shows Keaka just outside the arena and you can see the concrete grandstand above right in the photo. And, there’s a photo of the main entrance to the arena, which was locked. Once outside Eyguieres I saw a town on the map just off the road to St. Remy. So, I decided to turn into Aurielle. Talk about up-scale! A great little village of 1,500 with a bakery and a church and lots of nice housing, and, of course, two well-groomed football fields. The town looked like it had just been scrubbed, including the church in the photo. And, there are ruins on the hill above the village, which are visible in another photo.
Another aside before we get to Glanum, which is coming next. It’s common to see cans of Heineken beer being sold at McDonalds. It doesn’t seem to fit the Ronald McDonald image and it’s even more unusual because wine consumption so dominates beer consumption. You’d think they’d sell wine. Oh well!
On to St. Remy.
The Wilsons
