The Sabbaticus Line: Bloody hand-to-hand battles

After travelling by bus from Monte Carlo to Arles, we boarded the ‘Amadagio’ for a river cruise along the French River Le Rhone.

The Rhône is a major European river. With its headwaters located in Switzerland, it flows 800 km through France to discharge into the Mediterranean near the French town of Arles. Over the next week, we plan is to cruise up this river through southern France until we reach the French city Lyon.

After a short visit to a local Olive Farm and the opportunity to taste the forbidden fruit, we visited the carefully restored village of Baux de Provence. Archaeologists believe that humans habituated this area as early 6,000 BC. Next to the village are the ruins of an immense stone fortress, Citadelle des Baux, built in the late fourteenth century. Visiting the site provides the opportunity to walk amoung the remains of towers, walls and chapel, with numerous examples of rooms that had been constructed within the limestone rock itself. For those that like to view weapons of war from this period, the site boasts a number of full size working replicas.

We also visited the an Amphitheatre in the town of Arles. Inspired by the Colosseum in Rome, the Arles Amphitheatre was built in 90 AD by the Romans. This area of France was conquered by Rome at the end of the 2nd century BC to become the first of many territories occupied by the Romans. Nearly 20,000 spectators were entertained by chariot races and bloody hand-to-hand battles. The building which features 120 impressive arches, is 136 m long and 109 m wide.

Arles Amphitheatre is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has undergone some restoration works to enable it to be still used today: on the day we visited the Amphitheatre it was being prepared to host a bullfight that evening.