Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys!!

Today is our third day in France...  we have spent almost 2 days in Arles and moved on to Avingon this evening.  Arles is so surreal that it almost seems like we are walking around in a movie.  There are parts of the city that were built in the 6th Century B.C. (Yes, that's B.C.) and it is hard to imagine that a structure could exist for 2,600 years.  There are fierce winds ripping through the valley which range between 90-110 kmh.  What the hell?  Where are we? Lehi?  Anyway, we found out that as Van Gogh spent much time in this city, he could not handle the strong winds and they made him quite mad and were the cause of the famous ear-chopping episode.  (I looked for his missing ear, but couldn't find it.  I think that one of the local dogs ran off with it)

After a tour of the city we moved on to an olive farm where we were able to sample fresh olives, olive oil, tapenade, and wine.  The farm was an amazing site and has been past down from generation to generation.   There is a church on the property that dates back to the 1100's and you can still see symbolic etchings created by the builders on the outside wall.

The food on the ship is incredible and I have no doubt that I will gain 20 lbs before we return. We have found that we are the youngest people aboard by at least 20 years.  We challenged our youngsterhood last night as we stayed at the ships bar until 2 a.m. as the geezers slept.  Not sure how often that will happen, but it was a lot of fun.  

We are off to Avignon..  more later.

The Utah Crew: Top - Mr T, me, Dad, Mom, Sissy, Darrell, Bender, Al the Truckers Pal, Cheryl, Phyllis.  Bottom - Dave, Nancy, Darlene, Dick.