postcards from arles

bonjour… from the czech republic. i wanted to share with you a little more of our recent trip to provence, and then i realized that i had so many photos of arles in particular. this picturesque city really seemed to merit a post itself.

we started our trip by renting a car* at the marseille provence airport and heading straight to arles. i had originally hoped to see a handful of little towns on the way up north to our cottage in the drôme but arles turned out to be enough as it was. this lovely and very historical city (a great stop if you are into roman ruins sites in southern france) is easily worth a whole day. honestly, i just chose it at the last minute as a “first choice” city stop in the region and i’m pretty glad i did.

we arrived just as the saturday morning market was wrapping up. we can never seem to manage getting to the market on time and would go onto visit only one market during this whole holiday– and it was an artisan market. 

after wandering through the initial sites surrounding the main square (place de la république), we side-stepped the expensive restaurants in the area to stumble upon the tiny fad’oli café

 tucked away on a tiny, shady lane covered with vines. i highly recommend them for the fresh and wonderful veggie sandwiches and salads at a very friendly price! i overheard the couple behind me saying “oh my god, this is the most vegetables we’ve eaten this whole trip.” when i travel, i can’t really eat like i’m just “on vacation”. i do best keeping my eating habits as close to normal as possible (read: lots of vegetables and feel good foods) as to not turn my body upside down. anyone else like this?

then right around the corner, i noticed it: the unmistakable cafe from van gogh’s famous “café terrace at night” painting set at the lovely place du forum. arles is a city of great significance in the life of van gogh (yes – this is near where he cut his ear off!). 

our travel buddy on his first full day in france, so happy to be free and not on an airplane.

arles was a wonderful first stop in provence – a first taste of southern france and what was to come. every corner you look around, there are more beautiful streets and views to discover. the shopping, the treats, the food…. arles does not disappoint and was by far the most interesting city we visited in provence. not as crowded or busy as aix, more beautiful than marseille city. a good jumping off point.

from there, bellies full and pamplemousse slushie from glacier soulier for the road, we loaded up the car with groceries at the intermarche and headed for a week at our cottage. and maybe got lost like twice on the way. as you do at least once in provence.

* not even sponsored/just an FYI – just do yourself a favor and use autoslash when you rent a car. i booked mine from another site and then found a rental for half the price when i discovered this website. the more you know.