May 11, 2026 – Pélissanne to Mouriès – 30 kms – Luciole des Alpilles 

May 12, 2026 – Mouriès to Arles – 28 kms – La Cloison Studio

Ruth: I love the city of Arles. This is our fourth visit, and I still enjoy it as much as I did the first time. It has a fabulous mix of Roman and Romanesque treasures.

I met Gord on his walk into the city at the Cathedral of Saint Trophime. It must be in my top five favorite churches. I think we had our pilgrim credentials stamped by the same man who stamped them on our first pass through the city in 2010, and again in 2023 and 2024. This time, my French is better, and it was great fun talking with him. The portico and cloister are where this cathedral really shines! So many stories told in stone to a largely illiterate 12th-century population.

While admiring the portico, I spotted a guy wearing a baseball cap with a Canadian flag. After previously meeting a man from Georgia who was pretending to be Canadian, I decided to find out whether the man in the hat was a real Canadian or an impostor. I asked him to talk to me so that I could verify his accent. He responded in French, and I was pleasantly surprised to hear his Québécois accent. Un vrai Canadien!

We have now completed our section of the Via Aurelia — a wonderful bidirectional pilgrimage route that leads both to Rome and to Santiago. Tomorrow, we will spend a day on the Arles route before cutting down to the sea to connect with the Chemin de Piémont Pyrénéen at Béziers.