June 04, 2015

Arles and never trusting Google maps again

Today I had a very important lesson.  Never trust Google maps after Marseilles.  

I already had problems coming into Martigues with Google maps.  It lead me into gravel paved roads and dead ends multiple times.  If I was on a mountain bike I would be more inclined to take them,  but my road bike tires are already starting to show signs of wear.  So I had to backtrack multiple times into Martigues.  Now that I was coming out of the town it once again took me to gravel paved roads.  What should have been a 4 hour ride turned into 7 hours with back tracking and figuring out new routes.  

Eventually I simply abandoned the road bike navigation in favour of car navigation.  This was I was sure I was getting paved roads.  

In any case I arrived in Arles and met up with my host Muriel. She is a newly retired nurse from Arles.  This is her first time hosting a couchsurfer but she has been doing airbnb for a long time.  It really shows as her home is very clean and well maintained.  

Muriel took me to downtown Arles to check out the town.  Arles is a very Roman city,  the architecture have been well preserved and they even have their own amphitheatre which was not as big as the one in Rome but definitely impressive.  Arles is also known for the Vincent Van Gough pantings.  The painter resided here for many years before institutionalized in a nearby psychiatric ward.  

It was really interesting and we finished the day by having dinner together.  Muriel gave me some local apperceive to try and I got to use her hot tub on the balcony.  A really great start to my trip in Arles.  

Muriel and I

Roman Ampithetre, Arles is a really well preserved Roman settlement

local bread spread





Peace from Arles. 

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