So I visited the lovely cities of Arles and Avignon the weekend of March 1st and 2nd.

They were pretty close to Montpellier just an hour and a half by train.This was my first experience using the train station so I was a little unsure of myself. It was so easy, and they never even checked my ticket! Our first city was Arles. We stayed there for one night and in the morning went to Avignon, just about 20 minutes away.

Here is the well known Les Ar�nes d’Arles. It was built in 90 AD. It was awesome to visit, there was so much history in this little city.

  Arles is where Vincent Van Gogh lived for a little while as a patient. Apparently it is where he cut off his ear, but I’m not 100% sure. This is a picture from l’Espace Van Gogh, it is the garden in the center of the hospital Van Gogh stayed in. Van Gogh was also famous for a particular drink, that is not very common in the states, but is very well known for it’s magical effects (cough cough absinthe cough cough). It was in gift shops everywhere. I asked the salesman what would happen if I drank it expecting to hear stories of hallucinations, but to my surprise he said nothing out of ordinary, just typical effects of alcohol. He said some people even drink a little with dinner… what?

We were able to see a lot in Arles. The arena, the theater, churches, the cryptoportiques, and even an awesome flea market where we got some delicious goat cheese and I found a homemade pillow for 2euro. After a long day of sight seeing we snuggled into our hostel. This was my first hostel stay so I didn’t know what to expect. I’m glad I didn’t have high expecations. We stayed in a small room with 4 prison like beds.

At least breakfast was included.

The next day we went to a wine festival we were enjoyed endless tastings of wines, fresh macaroons and of course cheese! Miam! 

Next stop the the train to Avignon. I have to say I liked Arles more than Avignon because I think there was a lot more history there and things to do. Avignon was fun though. We visited the famous Pont d’Avignon where we sang the song:

We then visited a beautiful garden with a lovely view of the city and ate a delicious dinner followed by some tasty ice cream. It was only 6pm and our train tickets weren’t until 8pm. Thankfully we went to the train station earlier, and an employee said we could just hop on an earlier train. That was easy! After a long weekend I had one day to rest then off to Paris on Tuesday!

� tout � l’heure!

Emily