Arles April 1

It's April 1 in France and I learned something today.  In France, the first of April is called "Poisson d'Avril" or rather a person whom you have succeeded in fooling is called "Poisson d'Avril" or "Fish of April".  The origin of the fish part is no longer known, but the tradition goes that a person who can be fooled on April 1st gets a paper or cardboard fish taped to his/her back.  Check it out.

I would only know this since I'm staying with friends in France who have school-age children.  Both children, although attending different schools, came home with the same fish-related tales today.  For the details of the tradition, we relied on the internet since neither child was able to provide more than passing comment.

While "les enfants" were busily making paper fish at school, their mother and I took a trip to Arles just west of Avignon for a look at the Roman ruins.  It is said that the best Roman ruins are in France.  Arles has an almost perfectly intact Roman arena plus a few other less intact artifacts such as a Roman theater and a bath-house.  The arena is still being used regularly for "bull games" and other such entertainment.

Perhaps the best part of the day was lunch in Place du Forum at an outdoor cafe where goat cheese, cafe, and wine featured prominently.