Arles

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• September 25, 2016
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Amphitheatre

Mas de Ray Vineyard

Wine & Shade

Our stay in Arles saw us pitched on another vineyard just outside the town. Mas de Ray is a beautifully kept vineyard with stunning views over the surrounding countryside. We settled in the shade of an orchard and sitting in the sunshine thought ourselves very fortunate to be in such a beautiful spot and we still had the wine tasting to come. During the afternoon one of the vineyard employees came to explain that the next day there was to be a bull race coming through the vineyard along the path next to our pitch. He asked very kindly if we would move and of course we were happy to oblige until we were shown to a scruffy, mosquito infested  corner of the vineyard. After a little negotiation, it was agreed that we could stay in the orchard that night and move early in the morning before we cycled into Arles.

I could live in Arles. The Saturday market was incredible it went on and on with stall after stall groaning with copious amounts of delicious fruits, cheeses, fish and much more. The prices were considerably lower than St Remy so we stocked up as much as we could squeeze into our back packs and pannier. To make the sightseeing more bearable we left our purchases locked to the bike and hope it would still be there on our return. It was!

Arles is yet another Southern France Romanesque town with many of its roman buildings still in evidence albeit as ruins. It is famous for the Roman theatre and amphitheatre where we spent much of the day, including having our lunch of quiche and tomatoes, bought

Roman Theatre

Saturday Market

from the market, in the vast auditorium of the theatre.  Arles, like many other settlements, has a very beautiful but simple Romanesque cathedral with adjoining cloister and monastic buildings – the carvings to the capitols of the cloister arcade are sublime. We wobbled home laden with our market purchases,  moved the van back to the orchard being very careful where we stepped  (there must have been lots of bulls!) and watched the sun set over the vineyard.