Arles, France

The ECAMS scientific meeting and biannual EAAV congress

I was in France from 23 April until 01 May, 2005.  Read my journal entry for details. Click on the thumbnails to see the enlarged photos.


Arles

A view from a church near the arena.

The arena

One of the highlights of the town is an old Roman-like arena - still used for bullfights today.

Arles

The streets are narrow and fun to walk through. Only one vehicle can pass through at a time, and it crowds the pedestrians.

From one of the squares

A beautiful church. Notice how the weather was really nice that day - very dark blue sky with sun!

Amphitheatre

Antique amphitheatre near the arena.

Me by the Mediterranean

The first time I've seen the Mediterranean. Now I have seen 4 oceans/seas!

Me at "El Patio"

The EAAV dinner was held at a very touristy restaurant and I found these beautiful flowers nearby.

The Camargue.

Rice growing on the Camargue. We went on a birdwatching tour and saw all sorts of exciting wildlife.

"Bulls".

The Camargue region of France is known for its bulls. Here we walked a long ways on a nature preserve and found these 'bulls'.

Flamingo habitat.

We walked a long ways to just barely see a huge breeding colony of greater flamingos.

Flamingos.

This is taken from the bus - you could see the flamingos pretty well. These are wild!

Flying flamingos.

I love to see flamingos in flight. It's a sign of their wild nature - vs. the pinioned birds most of us have seen in zoos.

Flamingos again.

This shows the flamingos in their native habitat and you can see how colourful they are!

Flamingos at dusk.

Beautiful birds - one of the real highlights of the trip.

Me on a pony.

We went riding for 3 hours in the Camargue and near the Mediterranean.

Heather and Tracey on ponies.

"The three musketeers"? Notice the Mediterranean in the background.

Me on "Zhivago" the pony.

I hadn't been riding in years - my muscles reminded me for 2 days afterwards!

Me and two ponies.

I'm not sure they are really Camargue breed ponies. The one on the left (Zhivago) is really cobby and almost dappled. The one on the right is very Appaloosa-like.

Riding with flamingos!

Literally, there were flamingos in this body of water that we rode through (warm shallow salt water). We all got wet, at least a little.

The Camargue.

One of our guides leading a baby Camargue stallion. You can see the flamingos (pink/white dots in the water) in the background!

 


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