Small Bears "en Vacances" Part 5: A Roman City and a Trip to the Beach

 One morning, when we woke up, we were moored near the remains of an old bridge and the water was very still.  Polar told us that we had reached Arles, an ancient city settled by the Romans.

"We have two trips out today," she said.  "In the morning, we are exploring the city and, this afternoon, we are travelling down to the coast and going into the Camargue delta."

We had to decide between us which bear would be in the bag for these trips.  Because Hanley is interested in "The Roamings" as he calls them, we decided he would go into Arles, while Endon would see if he could spot wild horses and flamingos in the Camargue. 

Polar said Arles was also important in the history of art, as the famous Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh painted many of his greatest pictures here.  Hanley promised to tell us all about what he saw.

Hanley was thrilled to find there was a huge Roman amphitheatre in the heart of the city.  He wanted to jump out of the Bear Bag to explore but Polar told him to stay in it and let her carry him around, because it was such a big building.

Hanley was very interested to find out that the amphitheatre has survived partly because people had made little houses inside it and made it into a fort after the Roman empire fell.  He was shocked when he heard that it was still used for bull-fights, usually involving young men trying to take rosettes and rings from a bull's horns, but he growled when he heard that lethal fights sometimes happened too. 

"Humans shouldn't be cruel to animals," he said.  "And they shouldn't really let young humans do stupid and dangerous things that annoy animals either!"  We all hope that kind humans will stop the bulls being killed one day soon.

Hanley was still sad and growling when the group reached city's main square and the old cathedral, but he calmed down in there, when Polar told him how old the building was (12th century) and the guide showed him some late Roman sarcophaguses inside it.

He was glad to be in the Bear Bag for a walk through busy streets to another square which had been the site of the Roman forum, but was now most famous for the Yellow Cafe which had been painted by Mr van Gogh.  Hanley agreed with Polar that Arles was a very pretty city indeed and he could understand why artists like painting it so much.

Further on were the remains of some Roman baths.  Hanley likes to hear about Roman engineering and to see their buildings, but can never understand why the Romans liked bathing so much, as he likes to smell of bear (and sometimes beer) rather than soap!

When he got back to the boat, Hanley found that Endon and I had a new friend - a little bird that Mr Mitko had made out of a flannel!  We need to pick a proper name for him rather than just "Flannel Bird", especially as Mr Mitko made us another one a couple of days later!

After lunch, it was time for the second trip of the day.  We had decided that Endon would go to the Camargue, so Hanley loaned him his beret, to keep the sun off of his head.

The coach took the group through very flat land down to the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.  Endon was fascinated to learn that one of the crops grown, along with wheat, sunflowers, fruit trees like apricots and vines for wine, is rice.

He also saw some of the Camargue bulls and the famous white horses.  When the horses are cubs (or foals, as they call baby horses) their fur is brown rather than white, but it turns white as they grow up.  The same thing happened to our human guardian, Polar.

Then, as they came into the town of St Maries-de-la-Mer, Endon and his human companions saw some flamingos!  The Camargue is famous for them and you can adopt fluffy ones from several of the local shops, but Endon thought he was very lucky to see some wild ones.

Before going to the beach, the guide showed everyone the main church in the town and the shrine of St Sarah, who is the patron saint of the Romani people.  There had been a big festival in her honour a few weeks earlier, so her statue was dressed in very fine robes.  Lots of people had lit candles for her, so Endon stayed safely in the Bear Bag so he didn't singe his fur.

Then it was time to go to the beach.  Polar went for a swim and Grizzly had a paddle, but Endon just enjoyed running about on the sand and smelling the waves.  

On the way home, he looked out at the big fields full of sunflowers and thought what a lucky little bear he was to be having such a great adventure.

When he got back, it was time for our ship to leave Arles and start sailing north, back towards Lyon.  However, we still had plenty of adventures ahead, and I will tell you about my day out in Avignon in my next post.