We Return to Arles and Visit the Camargue

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We had breakfast with our new friends from Coventry and then made our way on shore and down to the train station without difficulty. We bought our tickets to Arles and did not have to wait long for a train, we just had to be careful that we did not end up in Marseilles. The hotel was very near the train station and we had seen it when we had our walking tour round Arles, but it was too early to check in so we dropped off our luggage and got a map of the town. This hotel is mainly used by French tourists and the staff spoke very little English so it is just as well that Tamara speaks passable French. She did not expect to have to use nearly as much as she has. Seeing it was still the morning we decided to do something in the afternoon so we went up to the tourist office. When we first visited Arles with the cruise we were given dire warnings about the pickpockets there so we were extra careful. However we did not see any evidence of pickpockets and although there weer people around, mostly French tourists of a certain age (like us), it was not very crowded, which would make it much more difficult to steal things. We escaped unscathed but what with the rain, the pickpocket concern and the labyrinthine streets we did not specially like Arles. It was a convenient base however.





The tourist office was crowded but very helpful and we decided to visit the bird park in the Camargue which you can reach by local bus for one euro each way. We also bought tickets for a three hour trip to the Alpilles the next morning. We had a sandwich lunch in the park nearby which was nice and shady until it was time to catch the bus. This is always a bit stressful if one has not used that bus before but it turned up as expected and on we hopped. We had a good view of the flat Camargue countryside, and kept track of the stops very carefully as this park is out in the middle of nowhere. The park is 60 acres of ponds, islands, lagoons and paths and is home to typical wildlife of the area. The most striking were large flocks of pink flamingos which look very strange standing in shallow water on long thin legs with their heads down siphoning the water through their large beaks. We also saw herons, egrets, coots, ducks and some other birds, and a pair of coypu which are a large sort of water rat - body half a meter and tail to match. We also saw some Camargue horses which are typically white and stocky. It was hot and the walk was quite long, and part of it had very few critters so we were glad to get back to the entrance area and sit down. While we were there a coypu came by and munched its way across the grass only a few metres from where we were sitting.





There were not very many buses so we went out to the bus stop in good time, where we found a couple of people who had been waiting for quite a while. We talked with one of them who could speak English and we all watched out anxiously for the bus, which was late, but it came eventually and we had a relaxing ride back all the way to the train station near our hotel. We asked the receptionist for good cafes and he marked a street on the map but we totally could not find it and wandered about until we spotted what looked like an interesting little bistro in a little narrow old street. It was not at all touristy. Dave had an unusual risotto with mozzarella and Tamara had gazpacho served a little sort of bruschetta and we had glasses of very good wine, much better than at the wine tasting. We managed to find our way back to the hotel without too much trouble.

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