Nice to Arles - Thursday 17 August

We had a quiet start to the day, and just packed ready for the long bus transfer to Arles in the afternoon. However, we did make a booking for lunch at Le Sejour, the sister cafe to Mon Petit. This time we sat inside, and again had a wonderful meal - main courses only, sea bass for David and cod for me. The meals were again beautifully presented and the service was very good. We then adjourned back to the hotel for an hour before our pick-up with Robert, as arranged with Ingrid.





He delivered us in 20 minutes to Nice Airport, where the APT people were waiting with two buses, ready to leave for Arles at 3pm. On the way we passed the Côte d'Azur hippodrome where they hold race meetings.

The journey, with a total of around 44 APT clients between the two buses, took around 3.5 hours (along excellent motorways), including a brief toilet stop. This is when we stepped outside the bus and got hit by wall of heat - it was now 34C.

We got into Arles at 6:20pm, and it was a quick visit and unload to cabins, before everyone was asked to meet in the lounge for drinks and nibbles, and introductions and information from the Captain, Tour Director, and other staff. It was great to catch up with the Todds who had arrived from Barcelona at around 3pm. They were naturally a bit shaken by the realisation that they had narrowly avoided the terror attack that afternoon, near their hotel in Barcelona...

Then it was all hands to the restaurant for dinner, a wonderful menu with allergies listed so not too much asking required by me. Mind you, my listed as GF 'mushroom cappuccino' soup arrived with a small choux pastry floating in it and had to be taken away. The fresh one that came was divine!