Our stay was reduced to two nights in the south of France due to France’s train strike. According to the lady who runs the hotel we stayed at there are often strikes around school holidays and other holiday periods; how convenient! We had to wait until 5pm the evening before leaving Arles for Switzerland to find out if our trains were included in the strike (5 trains and 1 bus – lovely and scenic).
There are very nice smooth fast trains called TGV in France (when they’re running). Double level, quiet, comfy seats and a power point (which is handy for writing this blog). Better than Eurostar!
We are grateful that our holiday has been only minimally disrupted by the strike and volcano and that we do not have any plane flights until May. Fingers crossed it doesn’t erupt again.
Arles is a small, old town that has a lot of character. We enjoyed walking through the streets looking at the buildings, eating French food and visiting the Roman ruins from 90AD. There were no crowds here like in Paris and London, nice and quiet. It was a quick but delightful visit.