Where’s Colin? Much to his surprise, and our own, he's back at the Municipal Aire in Arles for the third night in a row. It's not a nice Aire, particularly with the road noise from the nearby bridge, but it feels secure and was relatively convenient when we had a change of plan an hour before sunset.
First on the agenda this morning, once we had again relocated Colin to the free (and safer-feeling-for-daytime) parking at the out-of-town museum, was the Musee Réattu, on the other side of town. It's an art gallery, and the key feature noted in the guidebook is its collection of sketches by Picasso. What we found more interesting (although the Picasso's did capture our attention too) was the work by Réattu, including a few studies which tied in with bigger works and some unfinished pieces. What interested us far less, and thus took us only minutes to walk by, was the modern stuff (by an artist who had such an impact on me that I can't even tell you her name, even though I must have seen it dozens of times).
Leaving the museum after about an hour and a half inside, we had one 'monument', of the three we didn't see yesterday, left on our 'Passport Liberté'. Having decided against the Roman Theatre (you could see everything there from outside) and the Roman Baths (been to plenty before and these didn't sound remarkable) the only option remaining was the Alyscamp, which is the only avenue remaining of the Roman Necropolis, albeit all of the fine sarcophagi are gone (some in museums, like the one we visited yesterday, many taken by farmers in centuries past for use as cattle troughs!).
What can I say about it, other than that I'm glad it was effectlively a freebie on our ticket, because it wouldn't have been worth €3.50. It did give me the opportunity, however, in only remaining part of the only remaining church, to creep into the crypt, clap, and creep out again.
With lunch eaten back at Colin, two supermarkets and a petrol station were then slotted in before we headed down to the reclaimed land of the Camarge, with the intention of spending the night at the Aire at Salin-de-Giraud.
We duly arrived there and whilst it wasn't particularly nice, it wasn't offensive either. That view lasted an hour or so until, as I pored over maps and books deciding where to head next, a little niggle that I recognised this Aire made me wonder whether it was the place where the van of Jo and Matt (eurotouring.co.uk) came under attack from a trio of yoofs at about this time last year. A quick Google search proved it to be so and, as we were the only van there, a swift rethink was had. Within five minutes everything was back in cupboards and we were back on the road.
A scenic route (featuring some of the worst quality road surface) via the large lake/lagoon Etang de Vaccarès was taken back to Arles, which as far as I could see in the two minutes I spent looking, was the nearest place with an apparently safe official motorhome parking area (better the devil you know and all that). It was a wasted 80km round trip and one we may repeat tomorrow as I really would like to see that area.
First on the agenda this morning, once we had again relocated Colin to the free (and safer-feeling-for-daytime) parking at the out-of-town museum, was the Musee Réattu, on the other side of town. It's an art gallery, and the key feature noted in the guidebook is its collection of sketches by Picasso. What we found more interesting (although the Picasso's did capture our attention too) was the work by Réattu, including a few studies which tied in with bigger works and some unfinished pieces. What interested us far less, and thus took us only minutes to walk by, was the modern stuff (by an artist who had such an impact on me that I can't even tell you her name, even though I must have seen it dozens of times).
Leaving the museum after about an hour and a half inside, we had one 'monument', of the three we didn't see yesterday, left on our 'Passport Liberté'. Having decided against the Roman Theatre (you could see everything there from outside) and the Roman Baths (been to plenty before and these didn't sound remarkable) the only option remaining was the Alyscamp, which is the only avenue remaining of the Roman Necropolis, albeit all of the fine sarcophagi are gone (some in museums, like the one we visited yesterday, many taken by farmers in centuries past for use as cattle troughs!).
What can I say about it, other than that I'm glad it was effectlively a freebie on our ticket, because it wouldn't have been worth €3.50. It did give me the opportunity, however, in only remaining part of the only remaining church, to creep into the crypt, clap, and creep out again.
With lunch eaten back at Colin, two supermarkets and a petrol station were then slotted in before we headed down to the reclaimed land of the Camarge, with the intention of spending the night at the Aire at Salin-de-Giraud.
We duly arrived there and whilst it wasn't particularly nice, it wasn't offensive either. That view lasted an hour or so until, as I pored over maps and books deciding where to head next, a little niggle that I recognised this Aire made me wonder whether it was the place where the van of Jo and Matt (eurotouring.co.uk) came under attack from a trio of yoofs at about this time last year. A quick Google search proved it to be so and, as we were the only van there, a swift rethink was had. Within five minutes everything was back in cupboards and we were back on the road.
A scenic route (featuring some of the worst quality road surface) via the large lake/lagoon Etang de Vaccarès was taken back to Arles, which as far as I could see in the two minutes I spent looking, was the nearest place with an apparently safe official motorhome parking area (better the devil you know and all that). It was a wasted 80km round trip and one we may repeat tomorrow as I really would like to see that area.
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