Photo Exhibition in Arles

7/8

Today began with a sad task... Taking Julia to the airport.

Alas. :(

You know you're in France when the gas station posts their bread menu for the day...

We finally arrive in Arles!

We watched Cyrano de Bergerac in my AP French class so I geeked out a little when we drove past this.

Thanks mom and dad for making me notice glasswork everywhere I go...

This is going to be me one day!

On my college campus back home there's a coffeeshop called The Donkey, so when I looked up and saw this I was like, "The Donkey is a global chain!!"

Appropriate mural for a town hosting a photography expo.

Chandri wanted to stop in this super expensive shop to look at scarves.

The center of the town! Back in Roman times they had this giant arena set up for chariot races, and the giant obelisk was in the center of it. When the medieval ages came, they got rid of the race track and moved the obelisk to here.

Each year they choose something -- animal, plant, etc -- to be the symbol of the photography expo. This year it was a bull.

Of all the towns we have visited so far, Arles has been my favourite.

This is the cafe where Van Gogh painted some of his most famous pieces.

In fact it was here that he painted one of his first "starry night" paintings. This is also where we met up with Bill, one of Chandri's friends and an annual regular of the Arles Film Expo, who would be our guide for the day.

Arles has the coolest graffiti...

"Ici et La" means "Here and There." I found this particularly appropriate because Bill said we could call him "Uncle Bill" which for some reason made me think of Frodo in Lord of the Rings and Uncle Bilbo, and his book There And Back Again, and it just sort of clicked together for me with "Here and There..." Really long and round-about explanation but whatever.

Uncle Bilbo showing us how you can see the history of the town in the walls. From Roman times to present, you can see where there were once doors or windows, which were covered over, and then sometimes windows were cut out of those, and covered again, and doors cut out... Years and years and years of history in one wall.

In one of the expositions, looking at the photography.

A photo in one of the other expos.

Emma found a photo that she thought looked like a dirty version of Rihanna.

More interesting French graffiti.

Anybody want a couch?

"Where are we going?"
"Head toward the fountain."
"Head toward the anguished fountain."

The ancient colosseum of Arles. The watchtowers were built later, during the medieval ages to protect the town.

Every street in this town was more extraordinary than the next.

Heading into the cloister of an ancient monastery to see another expo.

Again, I am truly my parents' child. I admit (a bit sheepishly) that I was more attracted to the stained glass at this particular expo than the photography.

The roof of the monastery, around the cloister.

The view of the cloister from the roof.

Walking around the cloister, I took the time to really study the different carvings and sculptures that adorned it. Much of the art has chipped over the centuries, but on this one, you could still see the wee flowers that had been carved into the man's purse. We talked about cloisters like this in Art History but it's a totally different experience to be able to stand next to these figures and see the littlest of details carved into them.

Street musicians! They were really good, too.

One of the photography expositions. It was taken by a a Chinese photographer, who covered dozens of live models in mud and arranged them along a backdrop so it looked almost like a painting. It wrapped all the way around the room.

Arles has so much street art, it was really really neat walking down the road and just seeing all this art everywhere.

Thirsty pigeons. :)

Exactly what I'm sayin'. :)

Pets! A household after my own heart. :)

The Rhône River.

According to Chandri, this is the best ice cream place in Arles. They make all their own ice cream, and pick the fruit to make the different flavours fresh every day. It was INCREDIBLE.

I got a scoop of fig sorbet and this one with honey and nuts and olive oil, which sounds horrible but Bill told me it was their own creation and they were known for it, so I tried it. And the verdict: it was SO GOOD. I've never heard of anyone making an ice cream out of those ingredients all together, but it should be made more often.

After getting ice cream, we had about a half hour to wander around on our own, so Geoffrey, Emma, and I explored this street.

I don't know why, but small dogs are really, really popular in France. We saw someone with a big dog today and we were all like, "What is this, the apocalypse?" But we saw this Pomeranian and it made me miss Rusty.

A wee shop we stumbled upon.

Bull fighting was and still is very popular in the south of France, and this is the hotel where the bull fighters stay. It's also where Picasso stayed, so we popped in before dinner. We had to sneak in though because you technically must have a reservation to go in, and they kicked out Soreya, Nayyirah, and Larissa, but Emma and I, being the ninjas that we are, we able to evade the workers and went exploring.

The chandelier going up the stairwell.

Paintings and posters of bull fighting adorn all the walls.

The lobby chandelier.

The outdoor seating for the restaurant we went to for dinner.

Dinner! We ate in this restaurant that Bill knew of, and where he and Chandri's mutual friend Pascal displays his artwork. Pascal and his girlfriend joined us for dinner, and it was really amazing getting to talk to him and see his photographs.

Everyone who didn't want to eat their olives gave them to Emma. At the end we counted them, and she had had 15. The salads came with about three normally. :P

After dinner it was about 11 and we were all exhausted, so we began the long drive home. (I fell asleep.)