Days 23 and 24

(Dan’s comments are italicized)

• Train to Marseille
• Train to Nice
• Train to Ventimiglia
• Train to Genova

Thank goodness June 14 is over for another year!

Our second day in Arles was to be our museum day though, on our way, we poked our heads into a church. Although I feel we’ve seen enough Gothic churches for a while, it’s difficult to overlook their beauty so…

As we walked to the first museum, we passed pretty courtyards and impressive statues.

The first museum had some printings I didn’t particularly like, some pretty weird paintings, and stuff I didn’t understand! I have learned that I’m not a connoisseur of art! I was much more taken by the ceilings and the doors!!

One room had some pretty spectacular paintings that looked like 3D reliefs though.

I was pretty glad to move on from this museum (one room just had 3 speakers playing different sounds and it was called sound art!??!) though I didn’t say much as Dan seemed to be enjoying it!

Yes! I was greatly intrigued by this museum. I’m not sure who originally coined the phrase “Art is what I say it is”, but this idea was very present in this exhibit. Why does art need to be confined to a visual medium? Whereas I experienced a choreography of rich sound, Rhia heard a cacophony of noise. I could have stayed in that sound room for a lot longer, but moved on anyway to enjoy a display of a motorbike that had been lightly compressed in a compactor. I mean, really??!?!

We walked to the next museum along the river,

…and saw some pretty interesting art work along the way.

I think the creator of this elephant was inspired by Picasso

Then we arrived at the archaeological museum and WOW! There was an almost intact Roman boat that had emerged from the mud at the bottom of the river about 20 years ago. It was amazing!

The plethora of vessels was spectacular too.

But, perhaps, the most impressive artifacts were the beautiful floor mosaics found in local houses,

…and the sarcophagi! The carvings were spectacular and mostly done on Carrera marble! Dan has a difficult time cutting a piece of Carrera marble into a straight line…with electric tools! Actually, I’ve never had the opportunity to work with Carrera marble, but I’m watching videos so I can design our sarcophagi… Please don’t be upset if they just end up as misshapen headstones, though.

This sarcophagus lid would seem to suggest that some (A list?) actors made a lot of money back then too.

I was amazed that, once again, we were allowed to walk amongst the exhibits and touch many of them! Now THIS museum was much more to my taste!

This museum also displayed models of the major Roman structures located around Arles. We gained a better understanding of how these structures were made.

The next day it was au revoir to France and another train journey through Monaco to Italy. BUT, on our way we had to change trains in Marseille and oh my goodness! I’m not sure if there was a strike happening but the trash was awful…the worst I’ve seen outside of places like India and Egypt.

We went outside to get away from the smell but the trash followed us…

Thankfully, once on the train, we had one of the prettiest journeys ever.

We had a little mishap on the train as we’d accidentally booked tickets for June 25th instead of the 16th!! I think they took pity on us because I’m a senior and let us stay on!! I’m learning that being an older lady is almost as good as being a cute young girl in terms of traveling! I’m not sure people quite understand why we’re backpacking at our (read ‘my’) age but the vast majority of people want to help!

And we’re not above playing that up when we need to! We ended up in Genoa for the night where we found more beautiful floors (just at a marketplace).

And we saw some fascinating signs. This one was in our guest room and it was sad as I really wanted to smook 🤪

And I had my heart set on peeing on the floor.

Since we cannot smook or pee on the floor, we might as well just use this place to sleep. Good night.