Big Coincidence.

Monday 9th October 2017 - Arles.

Just to tie up a little story that I didn't tell a couple of days ago.  Whilst we are away I missed the opportunity to go to the Blackburn RUFC Colts Reunion on Saturday.  It was a great group of people and a great time of life for me.  I was rather sad to miss the occasion.  My brother Peter went to the reunion as he played for the Colts a few years later.  I thought I would let you have a little glimpse of me as a young player.....

Middle at the back with the headband.

Now the coincidence is that about three days ago I browsed Facebook (which is a rare thing) and saw that a retired colleague, Ian D'Arcy and his wife Sandra were taking a year to live in their camper van in Europe.  They were travelling south  through France.  On the off chance I left a message on Facebook and it turned out they were at Avignon, about 10 miles from us.  By chance they said they were going to Arles and so were we!  Today we were driving around the outskirts of Arles trying to find a camp site, we were rather lost because we couldn't find the site and had ended up on a narrow single track road.  We passed a man walking his dog.......and........it was Ian D'Arcy!  We knew he might end up at the same site but we hadn't made a specific agreement other than it would be nice to meet up.  Now that's what I call a coincidence.

We were pitched, two places from Ian and Sandra on the site and soon had the coffee on.  Ian and I worked together on several occasions at Barrow and Ulverston and Ian retired about 18 months ago.

After a bit of lunch Janice and I went for a look into Arles.  We knew it would be nice.  These UNESCO World Heritage Sites are getting a bit tedious now.

There's an Amphitheatre, a...

Roman Theatre and

Lots of lovely places.  Too many to include in this blog.  Maybe because it was a Monday but it seemed fairly quiet.

It is also on the Grand Rhone. Vincent Van Gogh lived here for a few years too and painted many of his famous paintings here.  His old home and favourite cafe have been destroyed now but there are galleries and many reminders of his stay.  One more surprising music fact we learned was that the group 'the Gypsy Kings' come from here.  I always thought they came from Spain!  

Overall, we are very impressed with Arles.  They must have liked me too because.....

They gave me a street that I could drive or cycle the wrong way along whenever I like.

We had a nice evening chatting with Ian and Sandra with a glass of wine or three.  It was lovely to see them and such a big coincidence.  We will follow their travels by looking at their blog with interest.

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