bon week-end is right!

28/3/2008

the first part of today we returned to everything in arles we wanted to see that had been closed yesterday...

the roman arena was really neat. sitting in the stands we just tried to imagine the ampitheater full, watching the bullfights. we climbed the tower for a great view of the city and surrounding area.

we saw the inside of the church and stopped at the all-natural ice cream shop after a lunch of bull meat and rice for dad and a seafood salad with clams, smoked salmon, and anchovies for me. the ice cream was good but honestly i prefer gelato.

during our walk through arles we stumbled on a garden van gogh painted and it looked almost identical! it's still hard to believe i was able to see all these places in person!

we took the regional train to avignon. dad was disappointed to know it was only 20 minutes because he just bought 3 bottles of wine. i had to convince him there really wasn't enough time to open one!

after walking circles a little bit (and even passing our hotel once, we later realized) i asked a couple people for directions and we were able to check into our hotel. they really do just keep getting better too. i will always trust rick steves' picks for hotels. this one in avignon is especially great beacause of the deal we're getting. it's called "bon week-end in avignon" and we get a 2 for 1 night deal at the hotel plus other extra goodies around the city. michael, the receptionist and my new best friend, is a gay british man who definitely wants to be french. he is also very helpful and always points places out on our map "so we don't get lost."

after a trip to the tourism office and a couple loads of laundry we headed to the irish pub for dinner and beer. it must be a popular spot because there were a lot of people - and a lot of good looking guys too!

this is a great weekend to be in avignon! i'm really looking forward to the next few days of activities and we are probably even going to extend our stay!