Jan's travel tales: Arles and the Camargue nature reserve

Arles is another ex-Roman city with a long history and most of its Romon remnants listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1981. Another famous point about Arles is that Vincent van Gogh lived here shortly from 1888 to 1889 and produced over 300 paintings and drawings during his time there.

1. The Arena - like a small version of the Colosseum

facade of the arena

very well preserved interior

much smaller compared to Colosseum

View of Arles from the top of the Arena

2. The Gallo-Roman theatre

It was rather disappointing to be honest

3. Explore the old town of Arles

Arles obelik

Next we wanted to visit the Camargue nature reserve which is a river delta wetland. It is famous for its salt plain marshes and lagoons, and the unique wildlife habitat living there. In addition, the bulls and Camargue horses (and cowboys) are also well known.

At the southern end of the Carmargue is the seaside town Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. The town is also an important pilgrimage destination as it is rumored to be where the three saints (all with the name Mary) set foot on land when they sailed from Eygpt. Every year in end of May, thousands of pilgrims will visit to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer for the Gitan Pilgrimage.

City hall at Saintes Maries de la Mer

the cathedral is the main attraction

during limited times of the day you are able to climb to the top of the clock tower

One of the best way to explore the Camargue is a horse tour. It is possible to book from the tourist information centre in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer but I would advise booking online in advance instead as tour slots are limited.

Due to time constraint and language requirement, the tourist information centre helped us call up a few horse tour operators. The one I found with great reviews on tripadvisor was les Randonneurs Amis de la Camargue but the tour timing didn't fit well with our schedule.

We settled for le petit ranch de Marie. Despite them being able to accommodate our last minute booking of an english tour, we won't recommend this ranch though. Although the horses were well-trained, our human guide wasn't very informative and was more of a route guide rather than knowledge guide of the landscape.