Two themes for today:

• Back the way we came
• Plans went out the window

• We went to Les Arènes to find out about tickets to tomorrow's spectacle. At the entrance to Les Arènes, the ticket seller says, "No, you have to go to Les Arènes to buy those tickets." Huh? It turned out there was a different ticket counter at the next archway over, but it wasn't open yet.
• We went back to a bakery we'd seen, but it wasn't open.
• So we went back to a Bar on a plaza (Place Voltaire). They didn't have any pastry, but the guy said we could get some at another place on the plaza and bring it back — no problem. The clerk didn't hear L and so we got only 1 sad pain au chocolate before a crowd came and bought out the rest of the pastries.
• C stepped in some lovely "regali di cane" as he calls it (in Italian). There's way more of it in Arles than either Paris or Verona. One of our guidebooks said that the French love their dogs. C can't say that he loves their dogs.
• L got a second hat against the sun (at a different place), since the first one kept trying to fly away.
• Back to Les Arènes, but the ticket place still wasn't open.
• Out to the train station to check on the trains for Wednesday. The agent assured us that even though several were cancelled today, none would be cancelled on Wednesday.
• Stopped on the Rhone where Van Gogh painted Starry Night and others. Now it's where the cruise barges dock, and it's just down from where the buses stop.
• Back to the hotel to drop off stuff.
• Back to the area where we had the backwards drinks yesterday to check out shops. Not much exciting, though did get a CD of Cuban(!) music.
• Swung by the Arles museum, but it isn't open Mondays. Darn! Should have read an up to date guidebook.
• Back to the Roman theatre, but it closed at 11:30. Saw most of it through the fence anyway. Hah!
• We wandered around foraging for food — it's not vacation if we don't have to forage for food, but nothing was open, probably since a lot of places are generally closed on Mondays. Even a restaurant with a menu board in front was closed. The owner(?) did come out and recommend another place, but it was closed, too. We settled for a tourist place behind Les Arènes, with more Italians and loud Americans.
• Back to Les Arènes, but the ticket place still wasn't open.
• Back to the area near the Arles Museum, to the Espace Van Gogh, the former hospital where Van Gogh was taken after he cut off his ear (yes, that happened in Arles). Finally some success. There was a very good photography exhibition there. The Espace Van Gogh doesn't have any Van Gogh paintings, and neither does the entire city of Arles — he wasn't too popular here at the time.
• Back to Les Arènes, but the ticket place still wasn't open.
• Drinks at a bar facing Les Arènes. A waitress says maybe the ticket place will be open tomorrow (the day of the spectacle).
• Back to the hotel to rest a bit.
• Back to the Baths of Constantine (as in Emperor). Not too much to see.
• Back to a music store we'd seen earlier, but it was closed despite the listed hours.
• Back for pictures of Saturday's restaurant, and more ice cream.
• Got stuff from bakery for tomorrow in case everything's closed on May Day, a holiday.
• Back to the hotel.
• Out to dinner, the best French food so far.
• Back to the hotel.