To van Gogh

I like picking my travel choices based on whims.  This time, I decided to go to Arles, where van Gogh painted one of my favorites...Starry Night over the Rhone.  I saw the painting in person a few years ago in Paris.  It was the only painting I took a photograph of while I did a slow pilgrimage through the art museums.

I decided that I wanted to stand on the banks of the Rhone.  I wanted to see the Big Dipper from the side of the river.  I knew very well that I wasn't going to see it in the exact orientation that van Gogh did, but I couldn't resist the opportunity I had.

The internet has the exact location, but I got liked the location I picked, which was pretty close.  I stood there during the day and again at night when I got to see the Big Dipper over the Rhone.  It was an exceptionally satisfying experience.

I spent the rest of the single day I had in Arles enjoying the Roman remains in Arles.  The amphitheater and arena were just exceptional.  The amphitheater was incredibly well preserved in the way of seating, but the decorative pillars and various other elements were piled up and off to the side.  There were some pillars that had been righted, but they only flanked a small portion of the stage.

I bought a ticket that was to get me into both the Roman attractions.  I headed over to the arena, and to my great annoyance, I couldn't get in.  This was oddly reminiscent of the day some time ago when I went to Nîmes and couldn't get into the Roman arena because there was a Radiohead concert that night.

I couldn't admit defeat yet again by being turned away from the arena.  I came to discover that there would be a "spectacle" that night.  The French word is spelled that way and implies a show of non-specific sorts, this one was evidently going to be Roman-themed.

Only right now when typing the word and realizing it's a cognate do I understand why what I ended viewing was the tackiest possible rendition of the various uses of a Roman arena.  I've always taken "spectacle" to have a slightly negative connotation.  It was somehow glorious through it's obvious staging, poor sound quality, and very well-trained horses.  The lesson that I am going to take from this is that when I'm using French, I've begun internalizing the language such that I don't have to translate everything to English in my head first.