Salt Towers, Pink Flamingos, White Horses

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Sunday, April 17

We're off to the town of Aigues-Morte - literally "dead water" - for their Sunday farmers market, which has been highly recommended. You can read about the town, pronounced egg-mort, in Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aigues-Mortes)...it dates back to the 10th C.

But before we found the market, we had to get gas! We found a gas station without incident and Nancy & I were able to figure out the instructions on the pump fairly easily. Of course, it did help that when a Canadian VISA card is used, the pump immediately switched to English instructions....

Our first problem: we'd parked the wrong way...which we discovered only after inserting the VISA card and making our choice. So I held the gas pump while Nancy jumped in the car and turned it around. I thought I should put the pump back in its holder, rather than just stand there holding it....which, of course, immediately stopped the transaction. We now had a motorcycle and a car waiting for us to finish - both drivers with rather sour expressions on their faces. We smiled apologetically - no response from the drivers - and finally got the pump going again and filled the tank.

Just like at home, the pump stopped automatically when the tank was full, but when I took the hose out of the tank, it continued to dribble diesel gas all down the side of the car, on to the pavement, barely missing Nancy's shoes. I tried to wipe it off the car with a small piece of paper I found in my pocket - I had no tissue - which clearly didn't work. We were continuing to smile apologetically at the waiting drivers as we tried to stiffle our giggles...the drivers were not amused.

On our way, finally to Aigues-Mort; we got there about an hour after our anticipated 9am arrival - not bad! The market was already packed with locals and a few tourists; we were luckyy to find parking. The fresh fruit & vegetables were visually beautiful: shiny purple aubergines; thick white asparagus, as well as bundles of bright green asparagus; huge artichokes from Spain and Italy - the Italian variety are purple and look almost like flowers; scarlet strawberries from Spain.... The cheese, bread & olive vendors all offered samples, which were impossible to resist. There were also clothes & purses from China & France, straw bags from Madagascar, massive bouquets of fresh flowers as well as local flowers, veggies & herbs to plant.

We spent an hour wandering around the crowded aisles, after splitting up & arranging to meet at 11. It was far too crowded to try to stay together as a group of 4.

After meeting up, we drove to the old walled town of Aigues-Mort and again were extremely lucky to find parking close to the main North entrance. The old town is definitely aimed at tourists - we were not the only ones snapping photos right & left. It was charming, though: medieval buildings turned into tourist stores, with the usual made-in-China souvenirs minglingwith unique shops, hardware stores and cafes.

The sun was pouring in and it was grand to just poke around the ancient town. We walked through to the South entrance and out on to the meadow where families were picnicking and a number locals were flying huge kites, which were silhouetted against the bright blue sky.

Interesting historical note: after going through the south exit and turning around to look back at the town, the tall, round tower you see on the left is "the Tower of the Salted Burgundians". This curious nickname dates back to a grisly episode of the Hundred Years' War. When the town was seized in a raid by English-allied Burgundian forces in 1418, royalist Armagnacs came to try to retake the town. They were foiled by the strong forifications, but one night a local citizen opened one of the smaller gates to let the Armagnacs in. Sneaking up on the sleeping Burgundian garrison, the Armagnacs slaughtered them before they knew what was happening...but rather than bury the bodies (no easy task in the fetid marshes surrounding the town), the victorious forces stuffed the dead bodies into this tower, layering them with salt so they would not putrefy. They were literally pickled.

SO...after this charming tale of medieval war games, I move on.

We had a quick lunch in the town, then piled back into the car and headed to the port cities of Le Grau du Roi (old) and Port Camargue (new). Described as the largest marine port in the Mediterranean, these two cities merge into each other; the big tourist attraction is the miles of sand dunes, which were indeed beautiful, but overall the 2 cities were a bit boring. Port Camargue consists of a series of 3, 4 & 5 story apartment buildings, all built in 1969 or later, all looking like they belong in Las Vegas in the 50's. Interesting architecturally in a mid-20th C way, but not enough for us to tarry there.

On to Les Saintes-Maries de la Mer, another seaside town already packed with tourists. As we drove, we passed large fields filled with the famous white horses of the region - a great sight.

Again, our parking genie was with us when we reached the town: after driving for a few minutes, Nancy spied a spot within 2 blocks of the main street, which was right along the shore.

Glorious sunny day - the sun reflecting off the white seaside buildings necessitated sunglasses. The Mediterranean was brilliant blue and even the ubiquitous souvenir shops looked pretty. Quite a Spanish influence in this town - both Hemmingway & Picasso frequented Saintes-Marie. We toured through the fortified Romanesque church in the center of town, dating from the mid-12th C. It had an ancient underground shrine, dating back to the 9th C...fascinating.

After a quick coffee, we drove northwest to find the Parc Ornithologique de :ont de Gau...the nesting place for the 100's a native pink flamingos. It was wonderful - the setting sun back lit the flamingos in the large ponds; there were also nesting white & gray herons - excellent views of all the birds. We all snapped pictures like mad, then realized none of us really needed 250 photos of pink flamingos....

Back to Villa Farran - all ready for an early night. It was a long day!

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