South of France: Day 4

On Day 4 of our trip to the South of France, we packed up our bags and piled onto the buses. We were going to be spending the night in a different city: Avignon. But, we made several stops along the way before arriving in Avignon. Our first stop was Arles. This city has archaeological and architectural treasures as well as links to the famous artist, Van Gogh. We wandered through the old city…

and saw a Roman Theatre…

and the famous café of Van Gogh’s painting…

and the hospital where Van Gogh went immediately after chopping off his ear, which I somehow forgot to take a picture of. But, I can show you a picture of Van Gogh’s painting of it…doesn’t that count for something?

(Photo Credit)

Then, we piled back onto the buses and headed to Les Baux de Provence, a magnificent village located high up on a cliff.

We had some yummy lunch of scallops and found a candy store that just kept calling my name as I tried to walk right on by (the candy store won).

And then we piled onto the buses again and headed to the place I had been looking forward to since we got on the train to go to France: the Monastery of St Paul de Mausole. This is the place where Van Gogh was confined for about 10 years.

It was here that he painted Starry Night while looking out of his bedroom window and The Irises from the garden outside, to name a few. I’m not even sure if I can accurately describe in words how I felt walking into his room. Basically, it blows my mind that hundreds of years before he was sitting in that very room I was standing in painting the Starry Night. The Starry Night my 5^th grade art teacher had me create my own version of. It was overwhelming and I spent probably about 10 minutes in that teeny tiny room imagining him in there and what his life was like. It was an experience I’ll never forget.

We piled onto the buses one last time that day and headed to our hotel in Avignon, where we were then free to get dinner on our own and explore that city. A group of us ate dinner right in the middle of the town with the sound of a street performer singing all American music in the background. And after dinner, we started a dance party right in the middle of the square to that street performer’s music…we even gathered a tiny crowd (one woman video-taped us the entire time). It was one of my favorite nights. After the street performer played one last song of American Pie…we headed back to our hotel for a good night sleep. Because we had one more day left of exploring to do!