We toured the hilly town of Viviers today a town of 4000 people with much architectural heritage and spectacular scenery. The highlight of the morning was meeting the local guys from the Pétanque club and getting to play for an hour or so. If you shut out the other team, they have to kiss the winning team on the fanny. Simon gave us a funny lesson all about French culture in the afternoon - I'm bringing home a few new facts and expressions. Couper le fromage literally means to cut the cheese but in French it means to take a shortcut - we had to tell the guide that to cut the cheese means something different to Americans lol. We reserved dinner on the lido deck of the ship and wow! We had a private I
view of our arrival in Arles - rich in provincal culture and roman history. It became a roman colony in 49 BC when Julius Caesar was here. I think this might be my favorite city so far. When we retuned

from a nighttime stroll, we met a handful of elderly Brits on the ship next door who surrounded Dave like he was some kind of exotic exhibit asking him all kinds of questions about who he was, where he was going, and what he thought. They were so nice in a hilarious way. One woman told me I could now say I met the quintessential Brit because she had bad teeth - she lost one of her front teeth in a fall just before her trip so she hadn't fixed it. They also told us that Eddie Izzard is playing in Avignon while we will be there ! Wow first Neil in Viviers now Eddie in Avignon - how weird is that ?