| Day 5 Princess de Provence Arles Camargue |
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| We went on a Jeep Safari in Camargue. Our driver/guide was a young man who spoke only French so Jim translated which was very entertaining. Carmargue is a marshy area between Arles and the medeteranian. Lots of wild horses and there is a huge Bull raising population. "the spanish influence", also lots of farming of grains. This donkey was the first "wild" animal we saw. We would stop and the driver would toss out stale french bread for the animals |
| This is one of the "wild" horses. I was suprised to see he was geilded, didn't know that occured in the "wild", still hubba hubba what a beauty! |
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| This was a monastary... we think |
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| We saw glimpses of monks who looked like FrierTuck |
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| The colors of the trees, you can see why Van Gough loved painting here. The molted light was just beautiful. |
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| Camargue Bulls reminded me of Picasso's Bulls |
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| This one was trying to tell us something |
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| When we first got to Camargue we were surrounded by flying insects and we joked about the jeep safari insect tour. This guy was hanging on to the rail on the jeep for quite a long time. We were going pretty fast on bumpy dirt roads. |
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| This was our first glimpse of the wild flamingos.They are the orange things in the air. The driver would honk his horn to make them fly while I was franticlly trying to stand up in the back of the jeep, hold on and focus my camera...lol needless to say, I want to go back with my own car some day. |
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| This is the group behind us. Only two groups did this tour |
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| This is Cameron hanging on! |
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| This is our driver, Jim in the back seat and Marianne, Cameron's mother. The jeeps hold up to 10 people and we felt very lucky there were only six of us including the driver. This picture is not of us stopped this is how he drove...looking over his shoulder. |
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| We stopped and got out and jumped over this irrigation ditch. This whole area is so close to the Mediterranean, and at sea level, that they have this elaborate system of delivering fresh water and keeping the brackish water out. |
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| We watched as this man in the white t shirt, the one without a helmet, led this group of tourist along in his daily work on the ranch. He came into this field of bulls and found the one wearing a bell. He got that one to move on into another pasture and all the other baby bulls followed. |
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| I am not used to yearlings with horns. Here in America cows are dehorned as babys |
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| Jim translating, tour guide having a smoke |
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| Giant pan of paellia |
| We arrived in Saintes Maries de la Mer where we strolled around, did some shopping for tableclothes. We sure would have loved to eat here. |
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| After 30 mins we were back on the jeep |
| "Wild horses", notice the sweat marks from saddles? we figured all the wild horses had been caught |
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| giant bull confined with thin electric fence |
| This is the camargue brand. This one is on a headstone that some dead missonarys head was buried under... at least thats what Jim our translator was able to get..lol we did figure out that the guy was buried with his head facing towards Lordues... I think |
| Most of our crew, the driver, Cameron, Willy, Jim and Sally |
| Ruins of a bridge in Arles this is right where Vincent Van Gogh painted stary stary night |
| After our adventures we were in desperate need of another cold shower and our cabins wonderful air conditioner. |
| Then we braved the heat and ventured out to do more shopping. This is the other end of the bridge that is no more. |
| This is one of the main streets in Arles |
| We walked up this street and stopped in this fabric store. Why didn't I bring an extra suitcase? |
| The prices were great |
| The street ended at this ancient Roman arena. As we got closer we noticed people buying tickets to go inside where there was going to be a running of the bulls. Not like in Spain but they just run them around inside. |
| Here are people buying tickets. If we had more time we would have gone in |
| We walked around the arena and found lots of touristy shops. Jim bought some lavender sachets for his coworkers. |
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| Typical lavender shutters |
| This guy was pointing the cat in the window out to his dog, the dog never could figure out what he was pointing at...l his pants are typical of what we saw French men wearing. Mens capri's. Very comfortable and cool for the hot, hot, humid weather |
| We stopped here in the hot, hot, shade and tried to cool off but we ended up going back to the boats air conditioning. |
| Our boat the princess de provence is sandwiched between two others. This happened often and was fun to walk onto the other boats to get to ours. You can see the inflatable pool the staff set up in their area on the back of the boat. |
| Looks just like the bulls painted in the Lasceaux caves |
| Flamingos |
| Some of the arena has been cleaned |
| I could have made this the bridge tour |
| Castle We were heading north to Avingion and had a BBQ up on the deck |
| George once again entertaining the crowds |
| This was the ships Chef Mario I thought my daughter would like him...until I learned his name. hmm Yoshi and Mario where have I heard that before? |
| The bbq had some wonderful southern German sausage.I was lucky to get some with 75 percent of the passengers German |
| This boy was dancing with his aunt |
| This is our waiter Emil |
| He promised Joan a dance at the BBQ wish this wasnt so blury Joan was beaming! |
| Posing with Jill |
| Avignion at night. There was an art fair. We walked through but it was late, hot, humid and crowded so I didnt bring my camera...kicking myself now. There were lots of booths full of Moroccan art. |
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| Love these cows with balls on their horns |