July 30

Three hours of sleep just ain't enough.

After we got on the train we discovered it was amazingly hot and stuffy and after hearing so many stories about crime on the trains we were extremely paranoid. Of course, even when we did fall asleep the bloody conductors would come through to wake us up ever half an hour. Sacre bleu!

Of course the real problem came when Amy woke me in the wee hours after a group of six rough-looking guys got on together and sat all along the aisle opposite us. Amy became convinced these guys were here to beat us to within an inch of our lives and take all our stuff. Waking up all of a sudden and hearing these sorts of things lent a lot of credence to what she was saying so I quickly became convinced we were in a lot of trouble.

Nothing happened, of course. If it had you can bet it would have been well publicized long ago. We got off in Marseilles to find the station well-lit and populated with security and mean looking dogs. The "criminals" disappeared to fulfill whatever ordinary roles they play in society while we cursed the French for having pay toilets that weren't even open at 4:30am.

We got to Arles and by 7am had dropped our bags at the hotel and found a baguette to take the edge off our hunger. We headed straight to the Arles history museum which sounds awfully limited since Arles is a pretty small town, but it was a Roman provincial base so there are a bunch of World Heritage Sites with high-quality Roman ruins. The museum didn't open until after we got there so we sat down as though in line for the opening. The staff looked through the glass doors in amazement. They probably never had anyone queuing to get into their museum before.

The museum was really good, though very spooky since we were completely alone. There remain parts of the wall and the bigger buildings including an amphitheatre and a coliseum. They've recently discovered a circus as well (more racing chariots than elephants riding bicycles) right at the front door of the museum so they're capitalizing on that.

Perhaps the best part of the museum was not showing us what the end result was, but the creation process. They even had 2,000 year old spikes that were used to create the foundation of circus. Even with tons of models and loads of artifacts the entire museum took us only an hour.

While we were inside the temperature outside was skyrocketing. Our walk back to the hotel was hot and sticky. Along with admission to the Arles museum we got access to a couple of other attractions including the cloisters (very peaceful), the cathedral next door (way too big for a town the size of Arles), and the theatre.

This last was a World Heritage Site and once we connected the ruins with the model from the museum it seemed to come alive. We could almost see and hear the Roman actors on stage. Needless to say we both had to give it a shot. I think I was more graceful, but Amy might have something to say about that. (Too bad she doesn't get a voice in this site.)

By this time we were really beginning to feel the heat so we checked into the hotel which was air conditioned and wonderful. How this could be a two star while the Paris hotel was three is completely beyond me. We tried to find a beach on the river, but failed that. There was a pool somewhere outside of town, but that was packed so we headed back to the hotel for a few moments of coolitude before dinner.

We ate at a nice outdoor restaurant just up the road from our hotel where the bugs were murderous. Amy suffered the worst of it, but even I got a couple bites.

July 31

We slept late beneath heavy blankets to counter the air-conditioning. How blissful! We visited a super market to buy some additional film and then Amy prevailed upon me to stop at a pharmacy to get something for her bug bites. I muddled through with a bit more French and managed to get the right stuff. While I was paying I noticed Amy was applying it right there in the pharmacy. After shooing her outside imagining her working on a tiny little pinprick of a bite. Upon closer examination, however, it was almost as though the nasty bugs had inserted golf balls under her skin. No wonder she was so uncomfortable.

After taking care of Amy's bites we toured the arena. It was converted into a fortress in the middle ages, but still looks just like what I always thought a Roman ruin should look like. They still have bull fights there, but we weren't there at the right time. Dang. (They don't kill bulls in France so it's more like wrestling only more real.) The stands can hold 20,000 people and apparently the fights sell out weeks in advance so it's unlikely we'd have gotten in anyway.

After the arena we perused the wares of a variety of shops before finding one just around the corner from our hotel that had some napkins we just had to have. The credit card machine didn't work so I headed back out onto the street to find a cash machine. I grabbed only enough to cover the purchase since this was our last day in France and it wouldn't do me much good to be loaded with Francs when we got into Italy.

On my return I found Amy with a sheepish grin that said, "I've been bad." Indeed. She found a table cloth and napkins for my sister's wedding as well as a set of table linens with a "JS" on them which would be a perfect gift for my mother. Wouldn't you know it, all these additions meant we didn't have enough cash. I prepared to head back to the cash machine, but decided I needed to take Amy with me to keep her from the troubling piles of linens in this devilish shop. My efforts were in vain, though. By the time we had returned she had made up her mind to pick up a set of dish towels as well.

For all my trouble the proprietor threw in a bar of lavender soap which seemed less for me than for Amy, but oh well. We managed to actually get everything into our packs except the dish towels which went into a new bag we picked up in Sarlat. We trained to Marseilles and then to Nice. We searched in vain for a good meal, but found a sandwich maker instead. Oh well.

We boarded an Italian train (oh how we miss those joyous French trains) and managed to occupy a compartment and discourage anyone from joining us. We heard more tales of horror from other passengers (they claim to have been in a compartment when a man fiddled in his bag and left them to be rendered unconscious by a gas shortly before being robbed of everything including their earrings). We settled down with intentions of keeping a watch, but were quickly both sound asleep.

Did we survive? Check out Venice to find out.