A week in Arles – last day! | alison richards | graphic designer and artworker

On my last day in Arles, I didn't have to leave the city until after lunch, as my flight was at 6pm. I figured I would get up early, wander around to all the places that I hadn't visited yet (or those that were always busy) when it was nice and quiet, visit the market, have a nice lunch then have a leisurely drive back to Marseille. In all, I ended up walking about 8km around the city!

I left my flat a bit before 8am. Check out wasn't until 12pm so I packed everything up and got ready to leave but I planned to come back to have water and wash up before leaving properly. Arles in the early morning is really lovely - it's so quiet and the only sounds I could hear other than birds was the sound of my footsteps reverberating off the stone walls of the alleys.

Place du Forum, although it is not where the original Roman forum would have been. It was originally called the Place des Hommes because the day labourers gathered there every morning

Another picture of the cafe painted by Van Gogh.

The walls were dedicated to some art posters. This one was odd, not only for the bags over heads thing, but they were all bags from British supermarkets.

I head on towards the amphitheatre, hoping to get a photo from the front of it without any other tourists. Missing: accomplished! Built in 90AD and still used today, it seats 20,000 spectators. Unfortunately, some of the entertainment in the Arles Amphitheatre today still includes bull fighting, which is quite popular in this area of France, but it is not the Spanish kind where the bulls are killed. This kind of bull fighting involves groups of men attempting to grab things that decorate the bull's horns, so they men are often injured, not the bulls. There are also plays and concerts performed there.

I went to this restaurant during my stay. Good view, right by the amphitheatre and decent food for somewhere that was in a really touristy spot!

The gothic spire (the only one left standing in Arles) is from the Église Couvent des Cordeliers, of which only the spire and a little bit of the cloisters remain.

The amphitheatre from the front – pretty impressive huh!

I then walked down towards the river, before looping back to place de la République. But I might stop writing the ins and outs of where I walked and just post the photos, as it gets a little boring to write, let alone read. Lets just say there was lots of walking...

Couvent des Ursulines. During the Revolution, most of the convent buildings were destroyed. Only a few vestiges remain, and are incorporated into the surrounding buildings

Decoration on the Saint-Trophime Primatial Catholic Church

I thought it was time I went to check out the markets. I had seen people packing them up last Saturday, but hadn't realised just how big they were - they stretched all the way down the main road! There was a huge variety of stuff to buy - from clothes to fruit and veg, pottery and flowers, olives and meat, toys, and almost everything else you could think of. The thing with French markets is that they basically bring stores to the villages, so that the people who live there don't have to drive many kilometres to buy goods. It's a great system, as it means that farmers and others can sell direct to their customers!

It doesn’t look it here so much but the markets were teeming with people!

After the markets, I went wandering again. I won't bore you with the commentary only to say Arles is really a beautiful part of the world!

All the sights to be seen from the highest point in Arles

Saw this in a shop window – oh my what an amazing work of art! Don’t think it would have travelled too well though 🙁

The graffiti I saw on the first day, in full

With that, I went back to my flat, had a drink, a wash up and took my luggage over to the car. It was still a little early, so I chose somewhere to have lunch and sat outside, under fans because it was HOT, and had a salad and wine for lunch.

I drove the car back to the airport, struggling to find somewhere to park it in the "drop off" car park. I pulled over to talk to a guy and he said to leave it with him - good, because knowing me, it would be just when I dropped the car off that something happened to it! He gave me the all clear and I walked to the airport to wait for my flight home. It really had been a great week!