It has been difficult to get rental cars in Arles. The town is small, and they don’t have enough supply unless you book a week in advance. I’ve tried Costcotravel, booking.com, tripadvisor, europcar, and they have no car available and directed me to Avignon and Nîmes. Finally I booked direct from Hertz and was able to get a small-sized car for 5 days, with full insurance and extra driver, for 455€. Do you know that booking.com has an age limit of 65? I’m going to boycott them from now on for age discrimination! Don’t they know that 65 is the new 45? Which means I’m 48!

Eric drove the whole time and it was nice sitting in the back, letting the kids drive. Driving is stressful, especially in another country. A few times I reminded Eric that he was going over the limit but I’ve learned to control myself (well, Tina told me to stop) and not look at the GPS screen.

Les Baux de Provence is only 30 min away from Arles. We made a stop at Carrières de Lumières, an immersive multimedia show held inside a limestone quarry. The exhibition was of Rousseau and Monet. It was quite an experience walking through enormous cavernous rooms and being immersed in the paintings, animations, and music.

Les Baux is a hilltop village overlooking the Alpilles and vast olive groves. It was a windy day, we parked the car at the bottom and walked up the hill and the village presented itself to us at the turn of the hill. Lots of souvenirs shops.

We had lunch at this 5* place where, for the first time, we had an unfriendly waitress. Lots of flies there too, everyone seems to remember that. We ordered Carpaccio of Charentais beef, Gardianne de Taureau with Polenta, and some pasta. Gardianne de Taureau is the Provençal counterpart to Boeuf Bourguignon, and made with bull meat instead of beef.

To be fair, we also were in a rush to get to Saint-Rémy to finish our learning exposure on Van Gogh. Saint-Rémy is 15 minutes away from Les Baux.

Our main purpose to go to Saint Rémy is to visit Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, where Van Gogh checked in after Arles. We visited the asylum with its dining room, kitchen, the doctors’ rooms, the sisters’ room, patients’ bathroom, the medicine room, and Van Gogh’s reconstructed room overlooking the lavender and olive groves. We walked slow. The atmosphere was calm. It was deeply moving, to be present in the space and you could feel not just his presence but the presence of the bygones.