I could have happily spent a few more days in Nice, but it was time to move on. We loaded back in the bus and napped on the way to Arles. Vincent Van Gogh lived in Arles and used much of the scenery as his inspiration for his paintings. May 1st is a holiday all over Europe called May Day so much of the city was closed. In Arles they were also celebrating a festival called Festival of the Guardians so while a lot of shops were closed the town was alive with parades and people in costume. The festival made it a little more difficult to explore the village, but we saw as much as we could. We walked past the Cafe of the Night and the gardens that Van Gogh painted, the hospital that he went to when he cut off his own ear, and the bull fighting arena in the middle of town.
We spent the night in the new village of Carcassonne, but we had a local guide take us around the historic walled village of old Carcassonne. The village reminded me a lot of St. Paul de Vance that we visited near Nice due to it's walled exterior and coblestone streets lined by local shops and cafés. Carcassonne has a castle within the walls and a basilica where we listened to an ensemble of Russian singers.
Since we arrived on May Day and everything was closed, we had dinner at the hotel and spent the evening chatting with fellow travelers and Luis and Patricia.
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