After posting yesterday's brief entry, I headed to Spar, a nearby discount store similar to Aldi. Not knowing if stores would be open Good Friday and/or Saturday, I was determined NOT to starve over the weekend. If I bought too much and cannot eat it all here, I can take what's left with me to my next stop. I
bought pasta, pasta sauce, duck paté,
dry pork sausage, camembert cheese, ham slices, strawberry preserves,
eggs, potatoes, onions, salt, butter, wine, cola, and bread. I can
make breakfast with all but the pasta and drinks, I can make dinner
with any of it, and I can vary the dinner so that I don’t have the
same thing more than two nights.
With the kitchen stocked, I went out exploring. First, I noticed that two of
the fanciest hotels in town face the same plaza my room faces--Grand Hotel Nord Pinus and Hotel du Forum--so
rich people are going to be just as disturbed as I will by noise in
the Forum (site of the old Roman Forum) each night . By extending my
wandering away from the local neighborhood, I randomly came across several of the major sights in town—the Van Gogh Foundation with its garden, the Roman Amphitheatre (a coliseum which is where the bullfights will occur this weekend), the Roman AntiqueTheatre, and the Place de la Republique (the other major square in town along with Place du Forum where I am living--my apartment being the second row of gray shutters up from the red awning and red umbrellas in the fifth picture shown at the time of printing this).
Arles really is a
small town. I probably shouldn’t have planned to be here 3 days/4
nights. But I can take a day trip or two if I wish to do so—to
Marseille and/or to Aix-en-Provence. I’ll just see how it goes.
There are some concerts related to the Feria that is taking place during my stay, so
I may be happy here enjoying the crowds, the excitement, and theentertainment. They even seem to have a running of the bulls each
day!
Although I didn’t
do much today (Thursday), I’m tired. It’s 21:05, and I’ll probably check
the reliability of my earplugs soon. There’s a lot of talking
outside the room, and I can hear a boom-boom sound from loud music
somewhere on the plaza. But I will shut my shutters, shut my
windows, use the earplugs, and even turn on the a/c if I need to do
so to try to drown out the noise.
Surprise, surprise!! I wrote the above on the computer to save for when I would be able to post it someday in the future. But as I prepared for bed, I noticed what looked like an ethernet plug for a wired connection to the Internet. I carry a telescoping, spring-loaded flat ethernet cord with me that was given to me by my hotel in Hong Kong recently. So I got the cord, pulled both ends to extend it to about 5 feet in length, plugged it into the wall and into the computer, and restarted the computer. Wow!! I got Internet, and it is faster than the Internet I have had on the trip so far. My phone still won't work because it has to be connected via wi-fi, but my computer will.
The connection was so good I decided to try to watch a Netflix film. (My account has been cut off, but it runs through the 17th due to that being my payment date.) Sure enough, it was fast enough that I managed to watch a film to help pass the time. The crowd noises stopped at 30 minutes after midnight as mandated by law for Thursday night--just a few minutes after I finished my film.
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Today, (Friday), I slept late--until 10:00. Starting tonight, the bars and restaurants in the square below my room can stay open until 4:00 in the morning each night. I will try to see if my earplugs and maybe the a/c can help me fall asleep, but if not, I will need to sleep until at least 10:00 each morning. It will be almost like changing back to Texas time after having already adjusted to French time!!
I made breakfast in the apartment--fried onions and potatoes together and served with two fried eggs, bread, butter, and jam. That was around noon. I then cleaned up and didn't get out of the apartment until after 14:00. Surprisingly, the stores were all open. I guess I was projecting Danish customs onto the French when I thought everything would be closed on Friday and maybe open only for a few hours on Saturday.
The town is festive. People are everywhere. I wandered the streets looking for other places I had not yet seen before. I found the Thermes de Constantine (the old Roman baths), and the Place Voltaire (another square with entertainment during the Feria). A small band that had been marching on the streets was paused at the latter having a beer break. I passed the Amphitheatre just as the bullfights were beginning. I could hear the traditional anthem (or fanfare), and I could see a large group of women in native costumes entering the arena.
Later, I walked across the river to explore Trinquetaille, a neighborhood my guidebook said was interesting. The business district in Arles is depressed with quite a few empty storefronts. It was worse in Trinquetaille with maybe 1/3 to almost half the storefronts empty. But I did find a very nice Intermarché Supermarket.
Now I am in the apartment. It's 19:30, and I will prepare dinner. Then I will go out around 21:00. There are concerts planned at two of the squares I explored today, so I will help celebrate Feria at one or both of those.
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