We got up early to visit the gypsy church in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. It's unusual in that it has the look of a thick walled fortress to it, even though it is in town. There is a very nice display inside of the statues of patron saints which are carried in parades during the festival. Also a collection of ex votos and shine with candles burning. Most interesting was that the relics are stored high above the sanctuary in a painted box which is lowered down for the festival each year. You can read about it the town and church here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. The church evoked the same wild feeling as the wind for me. Fascinating place.
When we looked for coffee, we found the market. This one was less colorful than ones we had seen previously. Used clothing, spices, sausages, olives, vegetables, salt and things of that nature were for sale. Anna sent Sasha out to buy sausage and he bought donkey sausage. He had good intentions, but Anna was not about to eat donkey.
No surprise that the cycling drama today was headwind. It got started later than I expected which was nice as we were afforded some peaceful time to take in the views of the Camargue.
We ate a picnic lunch by the river Arles, then checked out this massive church and Roman ruins there. A gypsy busker sang in Spanish and was worth listening to.
In Roman times, this amphitheater was used for gladiator fights, now it's used for bullfights.
We had one misrouting today with the GPS and when Patrick tried a very rural byroad to try to get back to the pavement, he heard shots. Not sure if someone was shooting at him or not, but we took the long way back from where we had come from. We saw a massive castle when we passed through Terascon, and other one right across the river. It is fun to think of what life was like here in medieval times. One last diversion on our ride back to Avignon was a brief detour to a village which had a sign out about a festival. No festival going on yet, but we did make our way up up up though narrow cobbled streets to check out some ruins.
It was easy enough to get back into Avignon even with rush hour traffic. At this point, we split with Anna and Sasha as we had booked separate hotels near the different train stations that we planned to leave from. After checking in, Patrick and I headed back out to the bike shop. When we passed though before I had asked if they could pack our bicycles for us. They said no but agreed to hold two bike boxes for us. Maybe there was some misunderstanding between me and the mechanic regarding this or maybe he just didn't want to do us the favor. In any case, he held one box for us - and we needed two. This is how we came to carry one standard size box and one oversized box for an electronic bike about 1.5 k to a hardware store and then another k to the hotel. Patrick had the large box and it was quiet awkward to carry in the wind. It kept hitting the ground and I wondered just how many times it could hit the ground and still hold up to the rigors of air travel. We had been hoping to spend the evening out with our friends but instead went for a late dinner after Patrick spent two hours cutting down the large box.
We had a nice dinner at a place which serves thinly cut raw meat which you cook at the table on a hot stone. Patrick ordered duck to eat like that. I ordered steak tartare. I didn't know what it was - now I know - raw meat and a lot of it. I had to laugh to think that is what I ended up eating without Anna to translate the menu for me.
We saw another side of Avignon in the night than we had seen on our previous visit. A dirty homeless man pulled a cartful of belonging by our table on a side street. We passed a teenage girl in a drugged state by the McDonalds and a dirty man on the street surrounded by five dogs. Other homeless people rattled the dumpsters and threw items into large duffel bags. It seemed like the underside of the city was showing itself. Club music played late into the night and even the earplugs couldn't keep it out. (this was the one loud place we stayed the whole trip, and it was the sacrifice that had to be made to be close to the train station).
Top food of the day: raw meat
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