Marseille wasn’t the most interesting of ports to gaze out upon but I’ve never let a little thing like interest dictate what I take photos and videos of before and I had no intention of starting on this cruise so please enjoy or suffer through (delete as applicable) some pictures taken from our balcony and a small piece of video of Emerald Princess sailing away from France.

SHARE By Curtis Stone

Let’s get onto the meat – quite literally – of this post and the reason you’re most likely reading this unless you’re taking part in a controlled experiment to see just how much misery the human mind can withstand, your arms strapped to a chair, your eyes held open by staples as page after page of some of the worst content on the internet is slowly scrolled past your unblinking, terrorised form. You’d be surprised how many visitors to this site are in that demographic.

One of the many things we were excited about regarding this cruise on Emerald Princess was that it would be the first ship in the Princess Cruises fleet that we would travel on which featured the relatively new speciality dining venue of SHARE by Curtis Stone. We love Crown Grill and we love Sabatini’s, two stalwarts of the Princess experience, but we also just love eating in general so the chance to try out something new was too good to pass up. We’d booked SHARE online prior to the cruise and the day we’d picked was this one in Marseille so the evening saw us getting ready to see how it would compare to the other restaurants.

SHARE is located at the aft of Deck 16 next door to a small lounge we’d loved on the Crown Princess cruise to the Baltics, Adagio, and it was to Adagio that we headed prior to our dining slot in order to have a pre-dinner drink. We were the only people there. Please pretend that there is a lamentation about the removal of the BOGO hour here because I’m tired of writing it out in full but never want to let Princess get away with quietly removing it from their ships. Anyway, the drinks were nice even if I can’t remember what we ordered.

At the appropriate time – that’s dead on the dot in case your awareness of what constitutes appropriateness when it comes to time-keeping is concerned is lacking (my family, I’m looking at you right now) – we walked the couple of metres from our seats in the lounge to the SHARE restaurant and were quickly seated.

The important first order of business was, of course, choosing wine to go with the meal. No, we didn’t pick the $989 bottle. The Zinfandel we went with was okay but still suffered from the same problem all red wines on Princess suffer from (in addition to the exorbitant markup) in that it was thinner than we prefer. There’s possibly a reason why the cruise line finds it impossible to stock a full-bodied red but Princess haven’t seen fit to share it with me. It’s something we’ve just learnt to accept onboard and moan about online every time we get a chance. Like now.

To the main menu, then, and as you can see there are six courses in a SHARE dining experience with a choice of two or three options in each course. I’ve no idea whether this menu changes on occasion or seasonally or geographically depending on availability but I’d like to hope so as otherwise the limited number of combinations will lower the likelihood of return visits to the restaurant for diners like us who want to try new things as much as possible.

There was bread on the table which always warms my half-Irish heart and our first courses turned up. I chose the Charcuterie while my wife opted for the only other choice, the Taleggio Cheese with Accompaniments. I don’t like cheese so this was an easy decision for the pair of us to reach and while the restaurant is called SHARE and you are encouraged to share I was happy to not do so for this course. The accompaniments to the cheese were olives which, as anyone who’s read formal night cruise posts on this site will know, belong in a Vodka Martini and then only temporarily until they are binned. Olives are not for eating. That’s not up for discussion.

Course two – the salad; something we would never deliberately pick – saw my wife select the Tomatoes and Burrata while I went for the Asparagus and Radish. Weirdly, for me this was the stand-out dish. The textures and tastes of my salad, helped a lot by the really fresh pesto, was just about perfect.

Pasta was the third course and for me this was the Pork Ravioli while my wife selected the only other choice, Ricotta Tavatelli. The green curry filling in the ravioli was why my wife didn’t opt for that as she’s not a curry person at all. I’m not a curry person either but, you know, for science there’s little I won’t try once. It was quite nice.

The only course at SHARE where we didn’t actually offer to share any of our food with each other was the seafood course where the lure of crab and eggs was too much for both of us to resist. That sounds awful now that I read that back. The Alaska King Crab was very nice, however, and I thought the textures on the dish combined really well again.

The penultimate course produced what my wife thought was the best dish of her selection, Strip Loin Steak, “perfectly balanced deliciousness” in her own words and yet she’s not a professional restaurant critic! What gives!? I chose the Duck Leg Confit. Very tasty.

As I’d gone for the Dark Chocolate Crémeux that only left Toffee Cheesecake for my wife’s dessert choice because you’d need to put a gun to her head to get her to eat marzipan and that would only occur accidentally after her head slammed forward into the foodstuff as she’d request death first. She’s not the biggest fan of marzipan. The desserts we selected, though, were both very good indeed.

As I’ve already indicated, there’s a potential lack of combinations if the menu doesn’t change but that’s about the only small negative I can bring up about our speciality dining evening at SHARE. We really enjoyed the themed courses, the textures and tastes were fantastic, the portion sizes were just right, the variety of food in each course was good, and there was a definite sense that everything really was special and none of the courses were just slightly fancier dishes than you’d get in the main dining room.

The final positive to report was that the restaurant venue itself was perfect with a gorgeous view out over the aft as the sun started to dip in the Mediterranean.

We’d certainly dine at SHARE again.

In the next post from this cruise travel diary series I’ll cover the first part of the first of our Italian port stops while on Emerald Princess.

Les Baux-de-Provence is located in the low mountain range, the Alpilles, and is mostly set on a rocky spur. Indeed, the word baux is derived from the Provençal word for rocky spur and it’s from this particular commune that the name bauxite comes as it was here that the aluminium ore was first discovered in the early nineteenth century. The elevated location involves a winding, mostly shallowly inclined ascent to the spot where buses are permitted to pick up and drop off tourists but not linger any longer than necessary. Swiftly debarking – or as swiftly as cruise passengers who’d only very recently had lunch and drinks ever manage – we were promptly guided up the gently sloping, pedestrianised area around to the main entrance of the town which gave us some views north of the location at the various outcrops that surrounded us.

As impressive as the views around Les Baux-de-Provence were it was impossible not to be distracted by the row of steel plate art pieces that lined the route to the entrance. These were the German artist Stefan Szczesny‘s Shadow Sculptures, the earliest of which he started working on in 2005. In 2019 Szczesny created an exhibition titled Szczesny aux Baux-de-Provence so it was handy that this was the year we were visiting as we’re fond of stumbling on little shows of culture like this. The sculptures typically incorporate abstract female forms, as you can probably tell, and are not supposed to be anatomically accurate, as you can probably tell too if you’ve ever seen a woman.

We were given a quick walk through part of the town by our guide to take us to the key points of interest ahead of a little free time to explore on our own. Les Baux-de-Provence is mostly narrow, cobbled streets rising from the entrance with grey, stone walls and other evidence of the fortifications that sprung up during its medieval historical period. Whenever we passed a point with a view down into the valley around the area and to the houses situated lower down and closer to the occasional streams that flowed during the winter months I felt compelled to snap another shot. Les Baux-de-Provence has some spectacular vistas to gaze out upon and it’s not hard to see why it’s such a popular tourist destination just to visit, soak up those views, and relax outside one of the many little cafés.

Our short walk along the occasionally steep but still perfectly manageable roads brought us to Place Saint-Vincent where two buildings of note were located.

The first building we entered was the Chapelle des Pénitents Blancs (Chapel of the White Penitents). The building was erected in the seventeenth century, the purpose of it being to treat victims of disease and to house deceased members of the brotherhood for whom the chapel was named. In 1937 the chapel was restored and rededicated to Saint Estelle and in 1974 the artist Yves Brayer (for whom there is a museum nearby, although we didn’t have time to visit it) decorated the interior with frescoes depicting scenes from the nativity in the local landscape. The nativity theme is closely connected with the commune which might surprise you if you’ve read the bible and can’t remember the chapters about Provence in it but more about that is explained a little later on.

A dozen or so metres from the chapel was the Saint-Vincent des Baux church. This church dates back to the twelfth century and has an exterior design in the Romanesque style popular in this region of France but is also partially dug out of the surrounding rock face. This would be the second church we’d visited which was incorporated into its natural surroundings, the first being the Rock Church in Helsinki we visited a couple of years earlier. The circular tower on one side of the church is known as the Lantern of the Dead and was lit whenever a resident of the town died.

Inside the church were three naves but while the building itself and a lot of the appearance of the interior felt old much of what was seen of most interest to us was actually relatively modern. The cenotaph, for instance, dates back only to the early twentieth century and the stained glass windows were designed by Max Ingrand and donated to the church by Prince Rainier of Monaco.

We were then given free time to explore and a time by which to be back on the bus. Les Baux-de-Provence isn’t very large – barely a couple of hundred metres in length north to south – so we weren’t scheduled much time here at all and that proved to be a shame. In terms of points of interest there wasn’t a huge amount to see after you discounted the churches we’d visited, and we weren’t bothered about visiting a café or shopping in one of the small number of shops dotted around the streets, but the town did house the ruins of a castle that looked interesting and with a little more time we would have liked to pay it a visit. There just didn’t seem to be enough time to do it justice so we skipped it and had to satisfy ourselves with a gentle amble around in search of more pretty sights to photograph instead.

The Post Tenebras Lux Window is the remains of a house that most likely served as a Protestant temple in the late sixteenth century. The latin inscription translates as “After darkness, light” and ties in nicely with its Renaissance era age.

We stumbled upon several more examples of Stefan Szczesny’s sculptures around the town and in a small, open square some of his other art pieces were on display.

As our time in Les Baux-de-Provence came to an end we passed a gate with a sixteen-pointed star motif on it. This was a reference to the Princes of Baux, the feudal rulers of the location during the medieval period who had fortified the town and who considered themselves descendants of one of the biblical three wise men, Balthazar. Hence the star. You might recall from your Book of Matthew:

Having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another path. Balthazar asked his fellow wise men to accompany him to France where he planned to lord it over the peasants but Caspar said he had a hot date he couldn’t pass up and Melchior was worried he’d left the iron on.

For a cruise excursion we thought that we needed just a little more time in Les Baux-de-Provence to really see everything we wanted; half an hour would have been enough to either add in a visit to the museum and a pleasant break in a café or, for a more adventurous trip, take in the castle ruins without introducing unnecessary risk of a heart attack trying to get there and back before the bus left. If you were visiting on your own as part of some time in the south of France then two to three hours should suffice and for the excellent views and just for being somewhere a little different from the typical tourist draws of the region it’s certainly a place we’d recommend seeing at least once.

The small area of Les Baux-de-Provence meant we could leave it until the last minute to make our way back to the bus meeting point. We found it odd as we headed there that some people from our tour group were walking in the opposite direction at quite a pace but assumed that they must have forgotten something or needed to buy something urgently at the last second. You never know when the compulsion to pick up lavender soap will fall upon you.

There was a small delay at the bus location because the bus wasn’t there yet. The limited parking space and time was strictly enforced by the local police so buses needed to pull up, get people on, and get moving as quickly as possible. For this reason, I guess, the bus was scheduled to arrive a few minutes after we had been told to get in position because the excursion operators knew all about the cat-herding qualities and reliability of getting cruise passengers to get to the same place on time. As the bus arrived I couldn’t help but notice that the people we’d seen heading deeper into Les Baux-de-Provence as we left were nowhere to be seen. We boarded. A head count was made. There were discussions. There were frantic looks. Suddenly, we heard an American gentleman talking loudly on his phone.

We’re all waiting on the bus. Where are you? Are you close?
You just head down.
Downwards.
Down.
No, just head down and you can’t miss the entrance.
Down.
Down.
No, not that way, just keep walking down.
Down.

Several minutes and one grumpy-looking police person gesturing at the bus later our transportation was filled with the same number of people with which it had arrived at Les Baux-de-Provence and we set off back through the southern French countryside towards the port and our cruise ship.

In the next post in this Emerald Princess travelogue series I’ll cover our departure from Marseille and a brand new speciality dining experience for us aboard a Princess Cruises ship at the Curtis Stone SHARE restaurant.

But we wouldn’t be spending any time in Marseille as we had a full day’s excursion taking us into the Provence countryside and two locations, the first of which was the city and commune of Arles. Sometimes we’ll do a fair bit of research into a place we’re visiting, read the description of the excursion, try to read between the lines of what’s in the excursion description because they invariably gloss over elements, take a look online to see what other people have seen or thought of a place, that sort of thing. Sometimes we’ll see a pretty picture of an amphitheatre and go “Ooh! An Amphitheatre!” and that’s all that’s needed. Our decision to visit Arles was due mostly to the latter way of thinking but we did also factor in the time of year in order to rule out for now a visit to the slightly farther afield Avignon (although that’s on the list for the next time we take a trip to this part of the world).

Once our bus pulled up in Arles we found ourselves beside the river Rhône where we could see a Viking River Cruises boat moored (more on them in a little while) and a few people enjoying the pleasant morning sunshine including a local painter. This was our first chance to experience one of the things other than Roman and medieval architecture that Arles is famous for: art. Vincent Van Gogh lived in Arles for a year and it was here that he painted many of his most famous pieces of work. The city has a walking trail with signs showing some of the locations in which the artist painted and we would spot a few of them on our half-day exploring but while we like art our tastes tend towards the more modern so, yes, Van Gogh’s connection was interesting and a bonus experience but it wasn’t our reason for wanting to visit the city.

Walking southwards from the bus parking spot near the train station we passed the location where Van Gogh lived but only a painting of the house remains – The Yellow House – as the building was badly damaged by allied bombing in World War 2. With nothing to actually see we continued and this brought us to the remains of city walls and towers. These formed the Porte de la Cavalerie (Cavalry Gate) and are medieval, having originally been built in the 13th century for and by the Knights Templar and at one point used to house prisoners. Their damage cannot be attributed to planes dropping munitions but instead to deliberate attacks during the French Revolution.

Through the gate we immediately encountered a monument inspired by a similar one in Place Saint-Michel, Paris erected for a former mayor of the city. The Fontaine Amédée Pichot (Amédée Pichot Fountain), despite its name, is no longer a functioning fountain. The monument itself, though, comprises some interesting historical elements such as an Auguste Cain-designed lion profile, the fountain design by Joseph Flandrin, and the most prominent piece of all, the enamel medallion created by Paul Balze. The fountain doesn’t appear in any of Van Gogh’s works despite it being around during his time in the city and very near to his house so I’m guessing he didn’t think much of it but I liked the classical feel.

We followed the road southwards which rose slowly away from the direction of the river and which was flanked by tall houses. As we reached our first major stop in Arles, the amphitheatre, we stopped to take in the view and noticed that not all the shuttered windows we could see nearby were quite what they seemed. This would turn out to be a feature on a lot of buildings during this week-long cruise along Europe’s southern coastline.

Arles Roman Amphitheatre

Almost any photos of the city will include pictures of the very prominent tourist attraction of Arles Amphitheatre – it is what attracted us to this cruise excursion, after all – and it’s easy to see why. Already on a high point of land in the landscape its two arched tiers rise up a further twenty metres. The building was constructed a little later than the Colosseum in Rome (somewhere we’d not seen at the time of this tour) and is understandably not quite as grand in scale, designed to hold less than half the Italian capital’s capacity. Still, it could cope with over twenty thousand spectators, something that seemed completely at odds with its size because despite appearing impressive – the white stone especially bright under the clear, blue sky – I will admit to thinking it was a bit smaller than I’d expected.

We gathered at the entrance and waited to go in, our guide going on ahead to pick up the tickets. It was at this point that a tour group from Viking River Cruises strolled up. The members of the two groups eyed each other; some did so warily; some glanced and smirked. Some people started playing with the rings on their fingers and chewing imaginary toothpicks. Fingers were clicked. Music from West Side Story drifted across the concrete. A rumble was on the cards. Our gang were there first and we outnumbered the river cruisers with their fancy headphones in to hear their guide without her shouting but they had that cocky self-assurance and oozing smugness of superiority that river cruisers always have – I think it comes from paying too much per person per night and needing some way of suppressing that realisation – which made them dangerous opponents. Dangerous, yeah, but I wasn’t worried. We were the younger group overall and my wife and I are veterans of brawls with bullies. We could take them. It only needed a spark to set it all off.

Our tour guide popped her head back out and called us in. The Viking group tried to move at the same time but we kept our discipline and slipped past the ticket booth as the person manning it tried to count us off and keep the river cruisers from messing up the total. It wasn’t pretty but the Princess gang won.

Inside the amphitheatre we stopped briefly in the gallery where our guide was able to point out that the lower tier used wholly Roman architectural techniques but that the upper one borrowed Greek elements for strength and practical reasons. I’m sure you can probably tell that just from looking at the photo, though.

It was to the main arena of the amphitheatre we were then led where we could quickly bake under the sunshine from above and reflected off the sandy, dusty surface and the seating. Some of that seating was the original stone but there were plenty of modern though uncomfortable-looking benches and seats too. The reason for the latter’s presence was that Arles Amphitheatre is still used these days. It no longer plays host to bloodthirsty activities such as gladiatorial combat but instead embraces the more enlightened practice of *checks notes* tormenting animals into a frenzy before stabbing them for the entertainment of sadists.

Van Gogh’s painting Les Arènes depicts people in attendance at Arles Amphitheatre and was painted from memory (as no fights were taking place at the time) in The Yellow House just a few weeks before the artist’s famous ear-cutting incident. Maybe the idea of subjecting animals to needless cruelty played on his already somewhat fragile mind.

Not all of the Arles Amphitheatre is Roman in origin. The towers were later additions and were built when the amphitheatre was fortified further and a walled town grew up inside for protection following the fall of the empire.

The next stop on our tour of Arles was a few minutes away on foot and through some narrow streets to the amphitheatre’s southwest.

Roman Theatre Of Arles

To give it its French name, the Théâtre Antique D’Arles was constructed in the last years of the first century BCE and was one of the very first stone theatres in the Roman world. Like most Roman theatres this one in Arles consisted of three sections: seating for spectators (the cavea, with the higher-ups in society at the bottom and the general public above that, typically with men in the middle and women at the top), the stage (wooden, around fifty metres in length, housing mechanical apparatus for plays), and the back wall which was decorated with columns (two of which remain standing) and housed an awning which protected the stage and also allowed a curtain to be held in front of it and dropped as the performance started.

The seating capacity in the Arles Theatre was about half that in the amphitheatre which makes sense as the design was a semi-circle as opposed to an oval. Like the amphitheatre, the theatre is still used these days but you’ll be pleased to know that the French haven’t devised another way to torture creatures unless the music or festival shows they occasionally perform are offensive to human ears. And knowing them…

In the latter half of the first millenium CE the theatre, like the amphitheatre, was fortified for further protection for the people remaining in the city. The south wall of the theatre includes the Rotland Tower, part of those defensive additions. The land area inside the seating and where the stage once stood were turned into narrow streets and buildings were erected to form a fortified town, again just like in the amphitheatre. It wasn’t until the nineteenth century that the area was cleared and the historic space recovered.

With its use as an actual theatre stopping altogether following the decline of the Roman empire, stone from the spot was taken and used in other building projects around Arles, hence the more ruinous look to the place. Exploring the grounds of the theatre many of those stones have since been retrieved and returned as an indication of the workmanship of the time where it has been possible to do so.

While the amphitheatre in Arles is the more complete ancient site it was the theatre to me that felt more interesting. It may have been less easy to imagine the stage, the curtain apparatus, and the huge backdrop but there felt more a sense of a connection with history because of the state of the ruins, and the more evident, artistic elements of design in the stonework held a lot more interest.

Place De La République

A couple of minutes west of the theatre on foot was the Place De La République; effectively the town square.

The first thing to catch the eye upon entering was the Obelisk of Arles. Originally erected in the fourth century CE during the reign of the Roman emperor Constantine II who had been born in the city this twenty metres high monument was rediscovered in two parts and re-erected in the fourteenth century, this time on a pedestal. In the nineteenth century a fountain was added because adding fountains to things was apparently the business to be in during this period of time in France.

Important buildings surrounded the square on all sides but the key one was the former cathedral, The Church Of Saint Trophime. Trophimus was the first bishop of Arles, around the third century CE, but the cathedral’s construction didn’t start until the late eleventh century. During the first couple of centuries it was used on a few occasions to crown the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

The semicircular arches are strong indicators of the Romanesque architectural style used in the church’s design but it was the fine, intricate sculpting, especially in the tympanum and around the columns either side of the doorway, that really stood out. The theme depicted is The Last Judgement with figures shuffling from left-to-right and past an impassive deity, their clothes removed, chained, and with flames at their feet. It looks like beard-wearers are going to hell so consider your style choices carefully, hipsters.

Free Time In Arles

At this point in the cruise excursion we were given free time to look around Arles on our own, do some shopping, etc. All we needed to know was where and when to meet for the lunch that would be provided as part of the tour experience.

Guide: Okay, so we will meet at one o’clock at the Best Western Hotel Atrium. I will show you on a map. It is here. From the Place de la République where we are now you head down this alley, cross the road, and it is right in front of you.

Person walking up: Wait, what time are we supposed to meet?

Guide: One o’clock.

Couple coming back over: Is everyone going off? Where are we supposed to meet?

Guide: The Best Western Hotel, here on the map.

Another person leans in: Is the hotel through there? And what time are we supposed to meet?

Guide: Yes. One o’clock.

Person tapping guide on shoulder: One o’clock, but where?

Guide: It is this hotel on the map, see.

Person (loudly): Did anyone get the name of the place we’re supposed to meet at?

Me (to wife): Let’s get out of here before I kill someone or our guide does.

We don’t prioritise shopping if there are interesting historical and architectural sights to be seen but since we’d already visited a few we decided not to explore the interior of the church and make a beeline for a shop we’d spotted bordering the square. We tend to pick up specific types of souvenirs for ourselves when travelling, these being shot glasses, mugs, bookmarks, alcohol, and soap. The area of France in which Arles is located is well-known for its soap and it was to a shop that we saw stocking a lot of it that we ventured. The woman in Folies de Provence was very friendly and gave us too much change when we stocked up with our purchases (but we returned the money as soon as we realised because the English have a poor enough reputation as it is without us adding to it). You’ll notice we didn’t pick up anything with lavender in it. My wife associates the smell of lavender with old ladies peeing themselves. That’s all that needs to be said about that.

We had a slow stroll through Arles on a curving course towards a large area of greenery we’d spotted on the map. The only interesting sight spotted on the walk was the facade of a former Carmelite chapel, now privately-owned building.

Arles Summer Garden

Passing through a large street market (but not taking any photos because everyone looked like the sort who attend car boot sales and experience tells me they’re moody buggers) we entered the Jardin D’Été (Summer Garden). It was a very pleasant little area to walk around, especially on a gorgeous day such as the one we had, and the grass space was broken up with occasional statues and sculptures. The garden area to the east seemed to be more formal – a sculpture here, for instance, was to a Doctor Urpar, a former mayor of Arles – while that to the west had more modern pieces of abstract artwork in it.

The west side of the garden also had one of the occasional markers around the city’s Van Gogh trail showing that he’d visited and painted Entrance to the Public Garden at Arles in this spot.

The northern end of the western side of the Summer Garden butted up against the gate to the Roman Theatre and the fortified Rotland Tower. In front of it was an attractive pond with statuary.

We started to make our way towards the meeting point for lunch. This took us past the Arles tourism office where we were pleased to see an old carousel set up (though it wasn’t possible to take a nice photo of it in its entirety thanks to fencing around it) and some pretty decent street art adorning the building.

Lunch In Arles

Incredibly, everyone from our excursion group managed to find the hotel and only a couple were slightly late. Lunch was described as “traditional Provençal” but we’re not naive enough to believe that many people in the region dine in quite this way. The food may not look particularly appetising from the photos but we had no complaints; it was all cooked or prepared well and the servers were very engaging. Our company on this table was towards the superb end of the spectrum with – including us – one couple from the UK (that’s us there), one couple from Canada, one couple from America, and one couple from Australia. What brought us all together was that not one couple there liked the party or person running their own country (yes, that’s right, we did talk about politics; it started when we mentioned we were British and received a “Wow! What the hell are you lot doing with Brexit over there?” and rightfully so). It was interesting to hear the Canadian couple’s views about Trudeau but mostly a pleasant change to find Americans who despised Trump because they seem to be very much in the minority on cruises.

We were mostly keen to experience the red wine during lunch since we like to try local alcohol whenever we’re travelling and we’re big fans of red wine but we’ve yet to find a French one we like. Let’s be generous and say that it wasn’t the worst we’ve tried but we still cannot grasp the wide regards of the country’s production in this respect. Our Canadians, on the other hand, really liked the red wine. Really, really liked it. While we limited ourselves to a single glass they managed to finish that bottle, take most of another one from another table that wasn’t wanted, and persuaded the staff to open yet another for them too. The small coffee to finish was probably going to come in very handy in keeping them upright and awake in the next part of the day’s excursion. And, weirdly (or perhaps not when you factor in their love of alcohol), it would turn out that we would end up on the same excursion as this Canadian couple on each of the remaining days of the cruise.

Once lunch was over our bus arrived to pick us up and head off for the afternoon’s portion of the day trip, that being a visit to Les Baux-de-Provence, covered in the next post in this Mediterranean cruise travelogue series.

Sometimes on excursions you can find that you get to see all or most of what a place has to offer in that short trip but that wasn’t the case with Arles. It appeared to have a lot more to see that we simply didn’t have time for on this occasion and we’d love to give it a more in-depth visit at some point. I’d definitely add a few days exploring Arles into any itinerary you might have for visiting the south of France.