L'Accordeon(Youtube) - A Drive in the Camargue - 12th May 2016

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The weather has been progressively improving each day and this morning it was fine overhead but without a bit of direct sun onto the partly covered patio it was still just a bit too cool to be sitting out there having breakfast.

We would love to spend more time chasing down sights of flamingos going about their day and if we do happen across some in the wild while we head off to visit a couple of towns and their sights then we will stop to record their antics.

However we learnt about an ancient walled town that has been very well preserved and we plan a visit there after taking in another town closer by with a walking trail that sounds interesting as it reveals history of living in the Camargue.

The town of Aimargues is east of Beauvoisin and is where the short walk that takes in some historical places is.

The locals haven’t slowed down any since yesterday and we have resolved that it doesn’t matter what time of the day it is they just want to drive way too fast on their narrow roads scaring the hell out of us tourists!

We had spotted a field full of red poppies when we arrived into Beauvoisin two days ago and by coincidence the road to Aimargues took us past that field again. This time we stopped to admire more closely the amazing sight and our minds went back 100 years to the one thing that soldiers found solace with during those awful days of WW1 and that was the fields of red poppies that emerge in the fields of France in the spring.

It is interesting what one will do to get into the best position to take video of a scene and here I had to slide down a bank into a grassy drain that was nearly 6 feet deep then haul myself up the other side by grabbing the tall grass to give me leverage and then climb onto a concrete post for some elevation looking over the field. All that accomplished I was happy with the view I had but then had to repeat the exercise in reverse, all the while watching for the speeding French drivers coming towards where I needed to haul myself up onto the side of the road with no verge!

Finding a car park easily in Aimargues we headed off to the street from where our planned short walk was to start from and found the starting point in front of the 17^th century church OK.

The description of the sights we would see on the walk was detailed enough in the leaflet we had but the way to connect them wasn’t. It was difficult to tell whether to head north or south and as it turned out we took the wrong option as we didn’t come across what we expected to see within the time it should have taken us to walk the distance.

So we took the decision to return to a small tree shaded square with an Italian restaurant and have lunch and think over our next move.

We could have stayed there all afternoon with the warm sun filtering through the trees, the wine and the pizza we had was a very enjoyable experience.

While it wasn’t a busy square, the local Hotel De Ville (Town Hall) was located there and we watched the staff return from their lunch break and locals rift in to do their business that required the local authorities stamp.

With the afternoon pushing on we gave the idea of finding the right route in the town away and got back in the car to drive a few more kilometres to the ancient walled town of Aigues-Mortes.

The town has Roman origins and was reported to have been founded in 102BC although there are no relics or buildings that have been found going back quite this far in history.

However the wall that encircles the town is very impressive and has been very well maintained making it a popular tourist spot.

The walls were constructed over a 30 year period from 1272.We never cease to marvel just how structures as large and as solid with huge blocks of stone were put in place and have survived so many years when the tools and equipment that we have today to do such things were not available to those building hundreds of years ago.

The tourist bus park was outside the walled part of the town and we could see from the number of buses parked that there would be plenty of tourists around.

With an ice cream each to help us on our way we entered the walled town where Knight Templar’s were imprisoned by Philip the Fair in the 14^th century.

As we progressed down the first street through the town gate entrance we could tell this place was a tourist trap with shops selling all types of souvenirs that tourists head to buy as memories of their holiday and in particular their visit to a certain location.

Just beyond the first church we came across was a sizeable square which seemed to have hundreds of chairs and tables set out in a neat pattern to cater for the bus trippers at several restaurants that surrounded the square. It was getting on in the day, now about 2.30pm, but lunch was still being served and there were plenty of takers.

We had seen a few people walking on the ramparts of the wall and we thought that we might get a unique view of the town enclosed within the wall from there and so set out to try and find some steps to climb to get there. It would also provide a good advantage point to take in the countryside beyond the town and in particular the salt marshes that make up a substantial part of the local economy.

There was nothing obvious about how to achieve what we thought would be an easy task and so we decided to walk the interior perimeter and eventually we should come to what we were looking for,steps!Not so. There were plenty of steps every 30 or 40 metres to the ramparts but each set were walled off part way up.

We became a bit disconsolate with our efforts to get up to the ramparts and when we saw a sign with directions to the Chapel of the Gray Penitents we diverted to take a look. It was a fascinating chapel with a colourful history dating back to 1400 having been established by a brotherhood of monks. During the French Revolution it was turned in a blacksmith’s shop when religion was effectively banned. Luckily the statues and other artefacts were taken from the chapel and hidden away until the ability to practice religion was restored and items reinstated.

We never did find the steps that would have taken us up onto the ramparts but we felt we had seen a good part of the town from ground level looking for those steps anyway.

As we headed back to the car we took some time to watch the local club members of the petanque club playing games on what can only be described as a bare patch of clay. They certainly play the game differently in France to New Zealand where it all seems much gentler. Here the cracking of the boules as they crashed into each other as the opposition tried to gain advantage seemed much more aggressive than what we have ever witnessed at home.

We finished off the day by stopping in on another piece of nature land next to the Rhone-Sete Canal where we might have the opportunity to see more of the wild white horses and bulls of the Camargue.

The plan was to do the circuit which should have involved about 10km in walk, all flat.

It was a fairly straight walk along a well formed farm type track towards the canal. However the only nature we noticed was the singing of the birds that hid themselves in trees. Not that that wasn’t enjoyable but we had come to see horses and bulls.

Just before the canal we did spot horses and bulls in the distance but they seemed to be held within fences so they hardly qualified as ‘wild’.

The walk along the canal was about 2km and it would have been interesting to have seen a canal boat but we weren’t in luck there. We did come across a small snake in the middle of the track. It seemed to be alive and sunning itself. We thought better than to disturb it and moved on.

Out of the blue there appeared before us a man on a bike and dog trotting along beside. We acknowledged each other and they went on their way. It all seemed odd because we hadn’t seen a soul since starting the walk an hour beforehand yet there had been other cars in the car park. We then discovered he had come out where we had to go for the return journey down what had been the far side of the reserve.

As we started on the return trip another man appeared with fishing gear in hand. He had driven almost to the canal and here we were thinking the only way in was by foot. Not that we would have driven as the track although flat did have ruts that would have made the drive interesting unless you knew the line to take.

As we started the last leg back to the car park we came across a disused rail line and then a house. It was only after we walked another 3 km that we realised that we should have followed the old rail line to make the walk shorter than it turned out.

Never mind it had been a lovely late afternoon for a walk and we were glad that our stamina held out.

Although the day had been warm and sunny we still didn’t get to stay and have drinks on the patio for as we sat down to nibbles and a well earned beer a light breeze came up and the air chilled enough to send us inside.

It has been a comfortable stay in the converted farm cottage and we achieved the most important thing e had wanted to do to see flamingos and at the same time taken a decent long walk with nature all around us.

Tomorrow we are off to the glitz and glamour of St-Tropez.

PS:enjoy the soft sounds of the French countryside with the blog title music on Youtube

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