First, let me introduce you to Katie Thornton. She is the director of Arles à la Carte (the program that is hosting us) and she is just fabulous.

I’ve started exploring Arles, which is a beautiful, interesting city. If you pay close attention, there are arrows on the ground that point you to different places of interest. Here, you can see an arrow pointing the way to a place that figured in Vincent Van Gogh’s life and painting, and another arrow pointing toward a site of historical importance from antiquity (it looks a lot like the block I from the UIUC logo, doesn’t it?).

Every Saturday morning, on the two main boulevards, there is a huge open-air market where you can buy just about anything you need (including fabric and mattresses, seen on the left!). It’s also just fun to look around.