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.
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View from our River Cruise Ship the Amadigo.
Sun set on the French River Le Rhone |
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| Breakfast cup of tea on the Amadigo |
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| Testing the forbidden fruit from a local Olive farm |
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| View of Baux de Provence |
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| Visting the village Baux de Provence |
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| This rocky hill provided an ideal site for the fort Citadelle des Baux |
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| The ruins of the Citadelle des Baux |
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| Arles Amphitheatre |
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| View inside of Arles Amphitheatre showing the extent of the arches. |
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| Panoramic View inside of Roman Arles Amphitheatre |
