Arles to Dijon River Cruise, Day One – Getting to Arles

I’m on my penultimate travel adventure of the year (my final trip will be Egypt in November):  a river cruise from Arles to Dijon on AMA Waterways followed by a few days in Switzerland and a jaunt from Zurich to Liechtenstein, which will be my 102^nd country/territory.

I’m starting this introductory post in the ever-so-scenic baggage claim area of the Marseille airport, where I have a couple of hours until my wonderful travel companions, Andy and Char, arrive. 

I left Dulles Airport yesterday afternoon bound for Frankfurt, my long-time bête noire, which more often than not is the frustrating, line-filled gateway to anywhere I’m heading on the continent.  Thankfully, Frankfurt airport is a breeze at 5:30 in the morning, and it even smelled wonderful: there are a couple of bakeries in the concourse that were churning out the day’s pretzels, bread, and pastries. (My connecting flight to Marseille left at 8:30 in the morning, by which point the airport had achieved its normal level of pandemonium.)

On United, my usual airline of choice, business class seats on long-haul flights are in a 1-2-1 arrangement with a decent amount of seat-side storage and dividers between the two middle seats.  Unfortunately, I had to fly Lufthansa, whose business class – at least on the aircraft that got me to Frankfurt – could use less business and more class.

Lufthansa squeezed two extra seats into each row (2-2-2), making for narrower seats and no seat-side storage.  What’s more, there were no dividers between the seats, and when the seat was laid flat, there wasn’t much leg room, even for someone of my underachieving stature.  I understand wanting to maximize premium revenue, but not at the expense of offering a less-than-premium product. 

I know – first world problems; the important thing is that I arrived safely and on time and, after an hour’s ride from Marseille, arrived in Arles, where I’m spending the night before boarding our river cruise on Thursday.

We’re staying at the Hotel Jules Cesar – the Gaul of naming a hotel after an invader! – which occupies a converted 17^th century convent.  (It’s nun the worse for wear; in fact, I found it spectacular.)  The staff is friendly and helpful, and the lobby has a handsome bar and a display of fantastic black and white photographs. 

Somehow, I ended up with an upgraded room, which was, um, eclectically decorated.  I liked it (after the lights were out the op-art aspects of the décor did not interfere with a solid night’s sleep following 31 straight hours of time awake, using the term loosely for the final six hours or so).

But I get ahead of myself.  After dropping our bags at the hotel, Andy, Char and I spent a couple of hours wandering through this delightful small city.  Our hotel is in the middle of the city center.  Across the main road (Boulevard Georges Clemenceau), a warren of narrow streets and lanes are lined with restaurants – more on those in a moment – art and photographic galleries (including one that fortunately was able to sell me a memory card for my camera; not sure how I forgot one), and roughly two ice cream (glace) purveyors per block.

There’s also the well-preserved remains of a Roman amphitheatre, as well as evocative, picturesque views around every corner, with centuries-old buildings festooned with the season’s last flowers spilling over ornate, wrought-iron balconies.

By this point it was 5:00, so we decided to go in search of dinner.  Most restaurants were closed until 6:30, and even those that were open only served drinks until that time.  Of course, 6:30 is an entirely reasonable time to eat dinner – just not while stumbling around on fumes after a sleepless night.

Faced with the inevitable delay, we tried at two different restaurants to sit down and sip some wine until dinner was served, but left each after fifteen minutes of waiting in vain for someone to take our orders. 

Somewhat disgruntled – and wondering whether our invisibility was related to being American (I don’t think it was, but the French-speaking folks at other tables all had been served) – we headed back to the hotel and hung out at the bar until enjoying a very good, and remarkably reasonably priced, dinner at the hotel’s restaurant.

And so ended our day, as well as this introduction.  More to follow!