Roman Arles

Today we explored some of the Roman sites in Arles. Arles was the great reward for Roman soldiers who served out their duty. After a whole bunch of years slogging across Europe and fighting whomever they were told to, they could look forward to retirement in the south of France. We should all be so lucky!
Some of the Roman sites were harvested in the middle ages and their stones were used to build other sites, usually churches. The most surprising thing in Arles is that the arena was never destroyed or buried, but had its arches closed in, and it became a fortress. There are still a couple of walled in arches and three towers are still standing from mediaeval times. In the 1800s the walls were opened back up. The arena is now in use for bullgames and bullfights. In bullgames, the bull is harassed a bit but lives. In bullfights, the bull dies. The bullfights take place twice a year and have something to do with the rice harvest. We did not discover the connection between rice and bulls, but it probably makes sense to somebody. We wanted to see a bullgame, but there was one in Avignon on the day that we arrived, but none in Arles. In reaction to this news, we ate bull for lunch that day. (Bull meat is very common in this part of Provence...it tastes like cow.)