Paradise in Provence

Did you guess correctly that it was Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Picasso (Pablo is Paul in Spanish). Consider yourself smarter than a 60 year old. 

Arles is another outstanding city. I can see why so many artists came here. History asserts itself here like so many boisterous children vying for attention. “Look at me. No look at me. Over here look at me”. There is so much to take in. The centrepiece of the city is the Arena, a Roman colosseum that is smaller than Rome but much more complete. So much so they us it for open air concerts. The Gypsy Kings were playing on the night we arrived. Just around the corner is the remains of a Roman theatre again almost complete. The rest of the city is a mix of Medieval an later colonial styles. The narrow streets are cool beneath a clear blue Mediterranean sky. Shutters, climbing ivy and vivid flowers abound – on light-posts, balconies, plazas and parks. 

The Café Terrace on the Place du Forum and quiet courtyard of the Hospital on Place du Docteur Félix-Rey are so strikingly untouched by time that Vincent could have been here yesterday. Even the Langlois Bridge is still as it was in 1888 when he painted views of both banks. It's like history has marked time so that those of us who felt his pain could see Arles through his eyes over a century later. There is something about Provence that touches the soul. The warm winds with a sent of lavender, the rugged pine covered hills and valleys, the bright blue sky and the distant blue of the Mediterranean make this place special. We left with sadness but we will return. 

We are once again here in Cannes in our favourite campground, we even have the same place we had last year beneath tall eucalypts. It's quiet here and the view beyond the trees takes in the coast and surrounding hills. If you want a place with narrow streets that wind their way up the side of the hillside then this is it. If you are a bus driver in Cannes you can drive a bus anywhere. I think the phrase 'threading the needle' was invented here to describe bus drivers. We wandered around the streets on Sunday when we arrived. Everything was closed but along the alleyways and in empty carparks there was the Trash and Treasure market. Well trash mainly. It seems like every house along the winding streets drag out all their unwanted nick-nacks (and that's being polite) to sell to anyone gullible enough to think their getting a bargain. “It's not hand painted Margie. OK so it was only €1”. You get so involved with the whole event that you turn around and find you are standing at the top of the hill in a cool shady courtyard of the Chapel and Tower of St Anne with its spectacular view of the city below and the distant coast as it stretches east toward Nice and Monaco. 

The next day we took the bus to Nice. We were amazed it only cost €1.50 until it took two hours and it stopped at every second street corner between Cannes and Nice. The payoff was we landed smack in the middle of Stage 4 of Le Tour de France. It was the team time trial on a street course around the beach promenade and city streets. IT WAS AWESOME. The pre-race “Caravan” was just amazing. The sponsors all have mobile floats that are driven around the course. There's music blaring corporate jingles, Spruikers rabbeting on like late night infomercial hosts, dancing girls and guys, people in mascot suits, and lots and lots of cheap give aways thrown from the vehicles. Although some throw aways are not so cheap, like the Le Tour Polka Dot jersey that Margie had thrown to her before all the hullabaloo started. €70 worth of official race attire. Nice one.

We found a spot by the railing next to two young Aussies one in a Kangaroo suit. He must have been boiling as it was 30º. Took heaps of photos and had a great day. The Aussie team Greenedge won the time trial and they also had the Yellow Jersey. Not bad for a team that only started in Le Tour last year. We decided to catch the train back to Cannes, another two hour bus ride was not an option.

We had to set the alarm for Wednesday morning and use the front gate code to get out of the campground early enough to catch the bus to Grasse and get there before they closed of the roads. You see we got to watch Le Tour TWICE in two days. Pretty neat huh. I'd like to say I planned it like this but I'd be a big Julialiar. Grasse was planned Nice was a total fudge. We wandered around for a while before the race was due. Sat and had coffee and a pastry under umbrellas in a street-side cafe then browsed in the local shops. We bought some fragrant soaps and placemats. Now we just have to find a nook or cranny for them in the van. 

This was very different to Nice. There we stood and watch as each team took turns around the track at five minute intervals. We watched the whole thing and it took around two hours not including the pre-race circus. At Grasse we watched the procession of the “caravan” which took over an hour. They do this for the whole length of the race route – nearly 200kms some places. The race itself took less than two minutes to go by. We we lucky this race had a half a dozen guys in a breakaway that went through first then it was a 10 minute wait for the pelaton. Luckily I had my camera set to take 8 frames a second. We waited two hours for two minutes of race, that's the Tour de France. It's the atmosphere as much as the race that drags you in. We are only sad that we won't be with Tony and Gaille when they see it. 

Today we spent just wandering around Cannes again, lunch at a cafe, lying on the cool grass in the shade of palm trees by the beach and watching all the hand squeezes go by. That's Margie Speak for grossly overweight people. She squeezes my hand to get my attention. Some days I have to rub it with Dencorub it's so bruised. We are sitting here now looking out over a beautiful twilight. The sun has gone down but the sky is still pale blue and fading into grey and streaked with high cloud. There is a faint pink tinge to the silhouette of distant hills and the town now is just pinpricks of light by the sea. Time to finish and welcome Morpheus' embrace. We head for Italy tomorrow, then across the Alps to Munich.