Breakfast at La Ripaille is served in the restaurant. This was by far the most inviting restaurant on this trip, Provence par excellence! It was a very comfortable place to have a leisurely breakfast and plan for the day ahead. We had planned on going to Les Baux de Provence first, but it was raining and we began to make backup plans in case the rain persisted. It turned into a downpour. Les Baux is a beautiful city ruin, but doesn't provide much cover in case of a hard rain. Arles was the second place we were going to visit and at least it had lots interesting building interiors to see so we could stay somewhat dry. As we were about to leave for the day, a young family came in for breakfast. We found out later they were headed for Arles, too. In fact, we ate lunch at the same place they did.

As we expected, by the time we got to Les Baux it was pouring. We decided that another climb, this time in a downpour was not the best way to use the day. So we got back in the car and headed toward Arles. Fontvielle was only about 10 miles from Arles and five miles from Les Baux, so this was not a major travel plan change.

On the way to Arles we were intrigued by what appeared to be the ruin of a castle right along the road. There was a parking lot, so we pulled in to find out more. From the signage we discovered this was l'Abbey de Montmajour and it was open to the public.

As we walked up to the entrance it was clear that even though much of the building was in ruins, the path leading in was carefully tended.

We learned that the abbey dated back to 948 A.D., but had gone through many phases of construction, including a significant restoration in the middle of the 19th century.

Later it became an abbey again until the buildings and furnishings were sold during the French Revolution. In the 19th century the city of Arles purchased the complex as a historical monument. It is now owned by France.

One look at the interior showed that while much work had been done to the exterior of the building, the inside had been stripped and had not been restored.

In the beginning the Abbey had been one of the stops on the pilgrimage of the Holy Cross, but later during the time of the Hundred Years War and the Wars of Religion, it had been used as a fortress.

In recent years architectural photographers have done many photographic studies of the Abbey. These studies include everything from the general stone work, to the carvings in the walls, to the distribution of tombs around the buildings, and they are on exhibit in a series of galleries in the Abbey. It was well worth the stop.

The drive into Arles was very simple using the navigation program. We found a parking lot on the northern edge of the center of Arles across from a Monoprix! At this point I needed a tee shirt and Jan wanted to look at silver belts. Instead of a belt she bought a mother-of-pearl shell necklace. The rain finally let up and we set off to explore Arles.

We chose to enter Arles on a street that took us straight to the city hall. We had searched for a restaurant on the way in, but were looking to see if the crêperie we had gone to in 1990 was still in the Place Van Gogh. It was and we enjoyed crêpes filled with potatoes, ham, and Reblochon cheese for lunch. It was a very hearty lunch with red wine and coffee.

After lunch we saw an exhibit of Piere Alechinsky's posters. It was a retrospective show that pretty much traced poster design from the 1960s to the present. On the way back to the car we stopped at a pâtisserie for some lemon tarte. Before we left Arles we made another stop at the Monoprix to pick up the makings of chicken and tomato sandwiches.

It wasn't clear exactly what the aqueducts were used for here, but I'd venture a guess that they irrigated the fields below the hill. The left photo is from the top of the hill. Water traveled down the center trough. The olive trees are on the right.

After our dinner, we went to see some aqueducts marked on our highway map. These were not the tourist attractions most people see. They were not restored and we had to walk along the edge of an olive orchard to see them. There were geese in the orchard and they were making lots of noise. Never did see them.

When we turned to the valley below, we saw a large expanse of farm land and large farm below.

After this little climb we were ready for an early end to the evening and sleep.