09-09-2025 Entry

No walks recorded on Strava, but we did a lot of walking. Had a good sleep for a change, woke up, showered, shaved, and ate breakfast. Then we got ready for a sightseeing day in Aix en Provence and Arles. I drove, which was generally fine until we got into Aix. We arrived too late, so we were competing with everyone for parking. We kept driving around the downtown area, searching in vain for a lot with spaces. Finally found one at Rotonde, but the line to get in was long and it was hectic once inside looking for a spot. At one point I got trapped in a dead end and had to reverse. I was about ready at that point to call it and get out of town, but I went down one more level and was able to find a spot and back into it. Relief! We walked up and out into the town, found a cafe with appetizers and alcohol, then sat down for a long lunch driven by exceptionally slow service. Food (falafel, onion rings) was decent but served without any sauces. She brought us Budweiser beers, not sure why, but I was not in the mood to question it. It was actually a little comical. After lunch we walked to the cathedral and went through it. Nothing particularly memorable, from my perspective. Then we walked back through the pretty streets of old town to the car, had to visit the tourism office to find out how to get back into the parking garage. Slow traffic getting out of town, then we were on our way to Arles. Got into town there and had an easier time of finding parking, although it wasn't direct. We got directed into an alley, but on the way Pat saw a parking lot and we found a spot there. Parked and walked over to the ancient Roman Amphitheatre, originally site of hand-to-hand combat and chariot races. It's still used today, for bullfighting. From there, we tried to get on the path showing notables places from when Vincent van Gogh lived there and painted some of his iconic works. Ann was working off a PDF map with low resolution, so navigating was tough. We saw a bridge he painted as well as the site of a yellow house he painted. Then we walked over to some Roman underground crypts that were built to serve as a foundation for the buildings originally built above them. Pretty boring, we could have skipped this stop. Walked from there back to the car and drove, without major incident, back to the Airbnb. Driving here is really exhausting and sometimes stressful, not a fun experience. Dinner of spaghetti with pesto sauce (and sausages), to carbo load before tomorrow's ride. Quiet evening after that.