05/06/2012, Provence, France
Our next stop after Port Camargue and the Languedoc region was Port Gardian. We had an excellent and fast sail, getting into the marina at 2pm after only 4 hours on the move. Port Gardian was another surprise.
Firstly the marina was very small and our first effort to tie up at the Captainerie's wharf was rejected as we were too long. We were told to go to a particular berth, where we discovered we were also a tad wide. Fortunately the berth pylons were covered in rubber, as we were exactly the same width as the pen.
The second surprise was that the town of Port Gardian was Saintes Maries de la Mer, recorded in ancient times as having had an oppidum to Ra, the Egyptian sun god. The main feature of the town is the church from the 9th to the 12th century, with an altar from the 4th century. As the town had experienced attacks by Saracens and Vikings, the fortified look of the church is understandable. It is a very high fortification, topped by several even taller bell towers. As the pilot guide said, it is very conspicuous. Pilgrims visit the church to worship at the relics of two Marys, one believed to be the mother of James and John, the other the Virgin Mary's sister. The relics (a few bones) were unearthed from their graves in the 1400s and placed in the crypt. The story of how the Marys got there is even more fascinating. Apparently many of Jesus's friends, including Lazarus and Mary Magdalene and the two Marys and their black servant Sarah, were expelled from Jerusalem and drifted to Saintes Maries de la Mer in a boat. When the two Marys died they were buried there, as was Sarah. There are statues to the three, and each year the Marys are paraded through the town escorted by the gardians - the local farmers who ride white horses and raise black fighting bulls - who ride with the Marys into the sea. The third festival, which we were a little too early for, is when the gypsies or gitans gather to celebrate their patron saint Sarah, who is also escorted round the town by the gardians and dancing gypsies. There is a bull fighting (or should I say teasing) arena on the waterfront. The Camarguais taunt bulls rather than kill them.
The third surprise was discovering that Vincent Van Gogh visited Saintes Maries in 1888, coming down from Arles for his health. He did a number of beautiful paintings and drawings of the church, the white washed thatch houses and the streets, and the brightly coloured fishing boats on the beach. None of these scenes has changed since then.
And the concluding highlight was to see a flock of flamingoes on the etang next to the marina the morning before we left.
| Touring France |
04/26/2012, Cap D'Agde, France
A couple of cold windy days has meant we have sheltered in the 2,400 berth marina at Cap d'Agde. So it was adventuring to the nearby old town of Agde. The name comes from the Greek "Agathe tyche" which the Greeks called the Phonetician settlement they took over in 5th century BC. The buildings are from black basalt so not pretty by any means, but intriguing as the streets between the ancient buildings are so narrow they are for walking only, and when you look up the houses seem to meet overhead. The town is on the Herault River so the old houses on the water have bollards and big metal rings in the masonry that they used to use to secure their boats to. The river leads to the sea or to the Midi canal, where there is the only round lock on the 240km canal. This lets boats continue to Sete on the canal or break off and go to Agde and the sea. It was intriguing to watch it in action. And the highlight was the museum of ancient ship wrecks, and the three bronze Greek statues of a child, Eros and L'Ephebe or Alexander of Agde, a handsome youth. They are all around 2300 years old and Alexander was found on the bottom of the river only a few decades ago. And scenery wise, the fort at the mouth of the marina, Le Fort de Brescou, built in 1586 and refortified by Richelieu and Vauban, is austerely beautiful, but the prisoners must have had a hard time there. See our Agde picture gallery for more photos.
| Touring France |
04/23/2012, Gruissan, France
Gruissan, which we had never heard of before and about which the internet and Lonely Planet were largely silent, was a great experience. It was first mentioned in the 700s, and for a lot of its history was ruled cojointly by the Archbishop of Narbonne and the local lord, who exploited its salt and fish. What remains is a tower on the high point of the town which the Archbishop lived in as well as using as a prison. The 13th century church is also very beautiful and is apparently representative of Languedoc churches. The altar is six pink marble columns supporting the Virgin Mary rising to Heaven in billowing clouds. It also tells the history of Gruissan in that there is a painting of Saint Peter, in memory of 32 local fishermen who drowned in 1797, and the sad Honour Board to the men who died in the first World War ~ many families lost four sons. We wandered round the old town, and the old cemetery where heroes of the two world wars, the Indochina wars and the North African wars lie. The town was really tourist free, except for us. We had a lunch of moules (mussells) and pommes frites (french fries) and rose wine for E10 each. And to cap it all off, on our way to dinner we saw two flocks of flamingoes calling and flying overhead ~ were they going back to Africa or coming up?
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04/23/2012, Gruissan, France
Notre Dame de l,Assumption de Gruissan
| Touring France |
04/23/2012, Gruissan, France
Bar crawl, Sunday afternoon
| Touring France |
04/23/2012, Gruissan, France
Gruissan bar crawl, Sunday afternoon
| Touring France |
