Camargue Trip

Wednesday:  long motorway drive down to the Mediterranean sea to the ywalled city of Aigues Mortes.  I think the name comes from the fact that the area used to be plagued with malaria which can be fatal.  It was carried by mosquitoes which breed in the marshlands.  Nice simple clean modern hotel by the canal with an easy walk into the town which was nice and quiet.  Later in the year, it becomes impossibly busy with tourists.

Thursday: drove through the Camargue past vineyards, rice fields and fields of black bulls.  Crossed a river on a little car ferry to get to the seaside town of Saintes Maries del la Mer.  Fascinating place.  Sara, the patron saint of the gypsies 'lives' in the church and gypsies come from all over Europe in May for a special ceremony where they parade the statue round the town.  Outside the town is an enormous bird reserve.  Some huge rare birds are in big aviaries but most the rest are wild.  We saw storks, herons, all sorts of ducks and - of course- the famous flamingos.  They are hilarious creatures: they fight all the time like ducks and charge about doing silly things and making a huge racket.  It was wonderful ... you could watch them for hours.  From there we drove about an hour to the outside the town of Arles to stay in a very grand country house.  We were the only guests so the owner gave us the biggest suite and made breakfast specially for us.

Went into Arles to get something to eat.  Nightmare trying to park the car, even at night.  Not a nice city anyway, so we gave up on the idea of exploring it and decided to go home the next day.

Friday: drove up through very curious mountains to the Millau Viaduct which is the longest, highest, and most famous new motorway bridge on the world.  When you drive over it, you feel as if you are flying in a plane. After that, we drove for hours along tiny roads to get to Albi to look for some new summer clothes for Marion.  We were going to stay the night in a hotel but decided that we had enough energy for another two hours' driving so got home to Montjoi around 9pm very very tired.