Aujourd'hui!

Today!
Our last day in Paris.  We started it off by renting bikes and cycling along the Seine River.  The road nearest the level of the river has become a park.  Last year it was flooded in early June.  This year, it is high and dry, and a pleasant spot to walk or cycle.

Then this afternoon, we went for a little culture.  We visited the nearby Pompidou Centre.  The Pompidou has lots of interesting modern art, including one piece of performance art: a woman sweeping some kind of grain, in slow motion.

Performance art: Move

Here are a couple of pieces by great painters.

Matisse

Picasso

Picasso

Walking to Ile de Cite

The shortest route to Ile de Cite from our hotel is past the grand Hotel de Ville (City Hall).

We crossed this bridge towards Notre Dame.

Then on Ile de Cite, we entered the Hotel Dieu, which is a hospital.  The courtyard looked interesting, so I went in to take photos.

Lovely garden and architecture

Quite classical in appearance

And then this statue

And this piano.  The French have a sense of humor.

The weather was dicey.  We knew thunderstorms were in the forecast, but were surprised by the violet wind action when it struck, knocking over many chairs outside, and chasing all the outside diners inside.

Walking around the neighborhood

Oh the things you can see if you stop and look.  I took the first group of today's photos walking around a church near the Pompidou Centre (St. Merri?)

 Adam? as a gargoyle

Eve? as a gargoyle

Winged gargoyles

Dog-like gargoyle

These photos were taken in the Place du Chatelet, west of Hotel de Ville.  This is the Fontaine du Palmier.  It provided drinking water to the neighborhood, while commemorating the victories of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Fontaine du Palmier topped by a winged statue of Victorie

At the base of the column -- a sphinx

Leaving Arles

Today is our last day in the south.  We at heading north on a high speed train in the morning.

As my parting blog post to Arles, here are some views of the Roman arena.

View from the north

Approaching from the south

View along west side

View towards the east side

A bientot.

Never say "last"

I was rather surprised to hear that Bori wanted to go cycling again this morning.  So, please disregard the title of my previous post. We followed along the same route as yesterday, but went much farther along the canal.

Here are a few landmarks to find the 1Veloc bike shop.  It is one block inside the gates to the old city.

Gates to old Arles, as seen from inside the city

This giant monument appears across the street from the bike shop.

The monument is topped by a lion

Our destination today was Mas Thibert, a small town along the canal.

The most interesting building in town

The sculpture in front of the building above

The road into the city center, including a little café, 2 blocks down on the left

 A few scenes from the bike path.

A last cycle, this time in Arles

This afternoon, we rented bikes in Arles, and managed to ride them mostly off the busy roads, following the dike path along the Rhone for a while, on to the Pont Van Gogh, and then following a very nice paved bike path along the canal than runs between Arles and Port-St.-Louis-du-Rhone.

Yesterday, I walked to the Pont Van Gogh.  Knowing a walking route enabled us to stay off main roads as we rode bikes there today.

Van Gogh's painting of the Pont

This is a reconstructed replica of the original bridge

We began our excursion riding down the embarcation ramp for the river boats on the Rhone.  That started out pretty well, but we encountered one sunken boat that had containment booms around it.  Small barricades were up on either side of the boat.  But that wasn't enough to stop us from squeezing around them, and continuing on our way.

Looking back to the river boats

Bori squeezing around the barricade around the sunken boat

South of the the Pont Van Gogh, we were really surprised at how nice the canal trail was.  It is built atop the dike wall, and offers a great view of lots of agriculture.  Today we saw the rice fields.

Rice culture

Reading the clouds

This morning, we saw an incredible mixture of cloud formations.  It was mild, and a bit breezy, but it seemed like almost anything was possible looking at the clouds.  Thunderstorms are forecast, but then patches of blue sky break out.

After a morning spend driving around south of here, this afternoon I took a long walk along one of the canals of Arles.  There are quite a few canals, and lots of canal boats.  Here are a few photos of canal boats along the Canal d'Arles a Bouc.