We continued our tour with a bus ride to Arles. After getting settled in our hotel, Patrick took us on a walking tour of the city. Our first stop was at the Church of St. Trophime.

Especially interesting was the tympanum, with figures representing the 4 evangelists. Matthew is represented as winged man, Mark as a lion, Luke as an ox, and John as an eagle. The symbolism here is described in this site.

Our next stop was a square where Vincent Van Gogh had done one his paintings, The Cafe Terrace.

Next we walked to the 1st century AD arena which was about 450 by 350 feet.

It would probably have seated 25,000 when originally constructed.

This shot shows some of the internal structure.

From the tower we got a good view of the city of Arles.

In our free time some of us visited the Theatre Antique, built in the first century BC and capable of seating 10,000 in its original form.

Dinner was on our own that evening and some of us saw the arena lit up at night.

The next morning was the market and members of the group went there to purchase food and wine for the picnic. Here Kathryn and Annie are buying some goodies.

Photo by Mary Ellen Sturm.

There was free time to visit the Musee de L'Arles Antique (Ancient History Museum) and again, time to shop for those who wished to do that. The museum had models of the arena and the theatre.

There was also an interesting model of the course where chariot races were held and of the boat bridge the Romans had built across the Rhone, a difficult feat. Throughout the trip we were amazed by the engineering ability of the Romans.

In this museum were also excellent mosaics.

To demonstrate the difficulty in reconstructing some of these mosaics, the museum showed one partially restored.

They also had a copy of the statue of Venus of Arles.

The picnic in the park next to the old theatre was a great success. Tour members had purchased the food in the morning at the market and there was a huge amount of food, including all kinds of vegetables and fruit.