Foreign Perspectives

We’ve finally gotten around to booking a hotel for this evening in Arles.

The game plan is that we collect James from school at 5pm and keep driving ’til we get there. Most of the way is motorway and it’s a hotel just off the motorway exit so we should be there in about 2 1/2 hours or so.

What’s in Arles though? It’s one of a small group of towns at the western end of Provence which had a heavy Roman influence. There’s quite a sizeable amphitheatre in the town along with numerous other Roman era relics. Looks like it’s quite lively this time of year too as a number of the hotels were full when we tried to book this morning.

Also in the area is the Camargue nature reserve which we passed through many years ago on the canal boat. We might get to see that tomorrow afternoon on the way back here.

This is something of a scouting trip too in that we’re intending to go somewhere this weekend as well and will likely pass that way yet again. As usual with our mini-holidays, the location and length of it hasn’t been decided yet but currently in the frame are Albi and Valencia which didn’t make it today due to the weather, and perhaps Geneva and/or Lausanne which are around six hours drive but would be useful scouting trips for our proposed Christmas break in southern Germany.