Day 11 - 23rd October - Arles (Part 3)
Next was the Cloister of St Trophime.
Statue of Jean Turcan the Blind and the Paralysed
On the Episcopal City
What the cloister looks like normally and what it looked like when I was there
Coat of Arms
Capitals
Pillar
Cloisters
Capitals
On the tapestries
Pillar fragment
Coats of Arms
Other side of cloisters
Church Tower from cloisters
Children in front of church
Obelisk and German speakers
"Plumbing. Heating. Water of plants"
It must be expensive to hire them to water your plants
Durex dispenser on street
"Do not stick posters or we will sue you"
Side of Baths of Constantine
"We are not sheep" - Chicken
I think this is just a general protest against people who are allegedly trying to con others
Next was the Musée Réattu. Despite the name (Jacques Réattu was an 18th/19th century painter from Arles) it had mostly modern art (I was told all modern, but luckily there were odds and ends). Unfortunately it was the only museum open in Arles since it was Tuesday (go figure - they had to choose to all close on the same day, and a different day from normal museum closures too), so I went in (it being free due to the passeport didn't hurt either).
Photography was banned but I was so revolted I took some choice pieces (mostly non-modern ones).
Shadow of Maltese Cross
Crests of the Grand Masters of the Order of St John of Jerusalem
Portrait of the Honoured Grand Master Quiqueran of Beaujeu
I was quite surprised by Picasso's Portrait de Maria Picasso Lopez (1923). It actually was a real portrait. It wasn't just an era thing since there were earlier works that were more grotesque. So maybe he was respecting his mother by portraying her as a real person (and not a grotesquerie).
In Picasso et Catherine Hutin sur la plage du Gonnet, Cannes, Août 1965 by Lucien Clergue, he looked like a pervert (unfortunately I can't find a photo online).
Lucien Clergue's "La Grande Récréation" was interesting: kids in jester and ballet garb in a ruined landscape.
Naval battle
There were a lot of Christian Lacroix costumes. Apparently he does historical costumes.
Since photography was officially prohibited, I didn't take a picture of a particular artwork, but here is a picture from the museum's site:
"Book for your reactions to Le Griffu" ("The Claw")
Me: "What the fuck???"
At first I thought this was part of the exhibition, since the display extended in with no sign:
Bathroom
This was the kids' part of the museum.
Wut.
"We have stuck this foam rectangle which we like to look to look at and touch. It is used by the museum to protect works, like bits of blue foam which serve as frameworks for photographers. In putting it here we are proposing it as a work of art like Marcel Duchamp with his 'Ready Mades'"
Right...
The Moon
On Javier Perez's "El baile de la Soledad" (The dance of solitude)
This was good (bad) enough to record
This one's good: "Alone in the room, two pairs of shoes turn to the accompaniment of chimes. Their bodies - a man's and a woman's - are mere suggestions, and in their absence the shoes perform a dance which exists only as a memory. This peotic moment repeats itself endlessly. Time dilates and we are intimately drawn into the moment"
The work:
Uhh
Grade Sculpture, Anonymous. Vanuatu.
Uhh.
Jacob's Vision
Albert Ayane/Ayame died in June 2012, and there was already a special exhibition. Wah.
Death of Tatius
Path of the Sun
Coats of Arms, including one with a Cricket (I thought it was a grasshopper then I asked a woman there)
River Rhône
Alley. No entry except for bicycles. How privileged.
Merde ! Literally. Dogshit on Quai Marx Dormoy.
There were piles of dogshit on almost all the paths. One could code a game where the goal is to avoid the shit. On this stroll along the Rhône I encountered the most dogshit of any place I'd ever been. Maybe Arles can be the dogshit capital of France (i.e. the World).
Trinquetaille Bridge
I then set off on the first real steps of my journey to see the Van Gogh bridge (which involved leaving the city). The original location of the bridge was much closer to Arles, but they moved it for god knows what reason (maybe to stimulate tourism in the godforsaken area it was located).
Notice you're supposed to cycle there. I was the only idiot walking (actually I think I was the only idiot going there).
Where the bridge used to be, and where it was painted in March 1888 by Van Gogh.
School.
Har. Presumably this is so the kids can do a "look how tall I've grown".
"We want more pay!"
There was a bus that went there. Maybe I should've waited for it, but then reservations were needed.
After I walked past some industrial buildings (i.e. Formule 1 territory):
Finally. Again, close but no cigar.
It wasn't very impressive to boot either grr, especially considering it was 3km there and 3km back.
Other angles
Lock
On the way back I finally saw taxis, waiting at the roadside (literally on the border of Arles - at the "Welcome to Arles" sign).
I bought some Lemonade Beer at a petrol station. It was only €1,5. Unfortunately it also tasted awful so I dumped it.
Back in town: pretty Rue Baudanoni
Rue de la Roquette
More nice windows
Behind a fridge in a pastry shop: a pastry for every occasion. The lady pushed the fridge so I could take a photo, aww.
Mmm. North African pâtisserie. I decided to have dinner there. Unfortunately I'd already bought breakfast from the previous pâtisserie or I'd have tried this.
Super sweet Mint Tea, €1,2 (cheaper than a soft drink). They had no more thé aux pignons (mint tea with pine nuts, apparently) so I had normal mint tea.
Around the cafe. The pharmacy symbol was unusual - it's the Bowl of Hygieia (not an alcoholic cocktail)
Menu
Dinner (assiette tunisienne, €5) and more tea
I was quite disappointed. I think I was misunderstood: I didn't know the Tunisian salad was tuna salad (with tomatoes, onion, egg, cucumber and maybe potato, dressed with what seemed like lemon juice). To add insult to injury the bread wasn't even crusty.
I should've ordered the brick, which looked like a Cornish pasty.
Suspicious pseudo-Asian menu at "Le Pot Chinois" ("Chinese Pot")
I talked with the guy and said many were not Chinese. He agreed that they were Vietnamese and admitted that "pot chinois" sounded better to the French than "pot vietnamien". He also admitted that his mother (a Vietnamese woman) cooked different stuff. I was still pissed off from my Tunisian salad and was curious so I bought supper from here.
Apparently Sprite has fewer calories than Coke - the can said 91 calories.
This comes from "Hotel Megastore", presumably selling tiny bottles of shampoo/conditioner, white towels, white comforters, ugly wallpaper etc.
Suspicious chopsticks from place with suspicious pseudo-Asian menu
The French tells you how to use chopsticks. The Mandarin tells you that the chopsticks are hygienic.
Suspicious food from place with suspicious pseudo-Asian menu
Sadly the Porc au caramel with riz cantonnais was pre-cooked but that's why it was even cheaper than a kebab. There was a lot of what I thought was bamboo.
Chou something (Cream puff) with crème anglaise and chantilly
Van Gogh Cafe at night. A bit closer, but still...
There was no plaque for Starry Night Over the Rhone, so I used my GPS to match up with the map.
Cloudy Night Over the Rhone
Night view of river. Not sure why the lights show up as purple
I heard something I hadn't heard for a while - crickets
Caravans beside river. The French have trailer parks too!
Other side of river
The joys of modern technology: now you see it, now you don't
Price discrimination (you pay different prices depending on where you sit). Also, easy to read prices. Everywhere should do this.
Chestnuts (roasting on an open fire). Well I don't know about that but the Chinese style was way better since that's evenly cooked. Some of these were a bit burnt. On the up side they were pre-shelled/the shells were cracked unlike gao laak.
An advantage of common showers: if one is spoilt you can use the other. On my first night my room had no cold water and towards the end it was too hot because the tape couldn't turn. So I had to mix the hot water in a cup with tap water. On the second night there was no hot water so I used my SAF training. Also the shower cubicle was very tight so I had to hold my stomach in to squeeze in, and my chest was brushing the door - good luck to well-endowed women (this might be France but I'm sure they get international tourists).