Exploring Tarascon, castle and town

Today is a picture heavy day, because there was much adventure!

So my friendly kidnappers returned and took me sightseeing.  We went to a street market with cheap clothes and shoes, and then we checked out this church:

Quite pretty!  I went down into the crypt, too, but I have no photography skills and couldn't take a good shot in the dark.  Anyway.  After the church, we went on a long walk through this winding neighborhood:

That's Mr. Elvis Sir, for those of you who read my last post.  But eventually, we arrived at the CASTLE.

And it was the coolest castle I ever did see.  I think what I liked best is that very little was roped off, and being the kind of person that I am, I touched EVERYTHING.  Except this stuff, because it was under glass:

Playing cards from the 1800's!  I think that's some sort of fossilized egg to the right, but don't know for sure because my French literacy is at the level of a seven year old.  Just outside the room with the artifacts, however, was the garden.

If I'd lived in this castle, this would have been my spot.  One would have found me there every day in spring, summer and fall, reading and writing or just looking down at the moat and all the people passing by.  I feel like some girl centuries ago did exactly that.  But on we go to the inside of the castle:

It looks kind of like an apartment complex, doesn't it?  Side note:  sculptures of these things positively littered the city:

Some sort of mythical dragon/cow/fish beast that roamed the land back in the day.  But moving on.  Hitherto, I'm just going to give you captions for my other photos.  Picture tour time!

These strange devices were all emitting bird sounds that would have been around from 1100- 1800.  It was really cool to hear all the chirps echoing off the vaulted ceiling.  

It's a bathroom!!  I was really obsessed with it, because I always thought people from centuries ago would have used chamber pots, but they got all fancy with the toilets!  I tried to take a picture of the view through the hole, but again-- no photo skills.  They did their business four stories above the moat!  I thought it was cool.

We went up an almost never ending spiral staircase that made me dizzy both ways to get to the top of the castle.

It provided an excellent view of the city of Arles.  

There was graffiti from 1820!  Teens were annoying in the 19th century, too.

They have dead rats that presumably ran about the castle encased in amber or something.  Despite the fancy toilets, I guess castle life still wasn't as glamorous as a fairy tale here.

Found a turtle.  Fed him lettuce.

So that was the castle adventure.  I'm a little light on words today; this afternoon contained less time for introspection, as there was so much to take in.  Resolution of the day:

If I am ever a hobo, I will attempt to live in this castle, undetected by castle authorities.  I will make weird noises in the night, sparking the legend that the castle is haunted.  If they try to catch me, I will escape by rappelling down to the ground through the toilet.