Day 22 Thursday 18/5/2017
A greyer start to the day which was a good thing as we had to dismantle the camp and then pack everyone in the car. We had an early breakfast....
....and remarkably got everything back in the car. Departure at 9.45am with the top down because the sun was out and the temperature was up to 22C. We took back roads towards Arles including a touristic route detour which took us up a really narrow and twisting road up into the Alpilles hills. Bizarrely a strangely camouflaged BMW came up behind us soon after we started. When I pulled over to let him past we saw that it was actually a convoy of 3 BMW’S the first and the last camouflaged and the middle a standard model with “worktestwagen” on the back.
It seems that we were in the middle of a BMW Road test!!! Needless to say when they went by they disappeared in a cloud of dust driving the road far faster than I would dare to.
Just before Arles we went to Barbegal to explore the remains of the Roman aqueducts and the ruins of the chain of water driven flour mills which used to provide 4.5 tons of flour each day to provide bread for the inhabitants of Arles. It was fantastic to wander over the remains and to marvel at the scale of the Roman’s achievements two thousand years ago.
This is the poor modern day equivalent
We drove through Arles, across the extremely wide Rhone....
...and on down into the Camargue, wending along small roads to Sainte Marie de la Mer. We saw plenty of flamingoes, white horses and even some bulls, but photos will need to wait until tomorrow.
Our hotel, Lou Marques, is very small but very nice. We quickly unpacked and then out for a walk to orient ourselves. We had heard that the patron saint of the Roma people was celebrated at the church in the village and that the Roma make a pilgrimage to the village to carry her effigy from the church to the sea as an act of veneration. Well it turns out that all this happens on 24th May and the Roma are already here in force. Every available space is occupying by spotless white vans and expensive caravans.
To ensure that some parking is left for everyone else the authorities have put enormous concrete barriers in place with a 1.90m gap to drive through, given that the BMW IS 1.77m wide I didn't take the gap at speed!!!
We visited the church, saw Saint Sara’s effigy, wandered the sea front and booked an off-road trip in the marshes tomorrow.
For dinner we went to a restaurant recommended, and booked for us, by the hotel owner. Thank goodness she booked because it is a small place, has a Michelin Assiette rating this year and was full. The food and service were excellent, we both had one of the Menu du Jour, which comprised 3 courses - salad, bull stew ( daube de tauraux – a Camargue speciality ), desert and a decent glass of wine for EUR21.
Les-Salles-Sur-Verdon to Saintes-Maires-de-la-Mer 135 miles. Total 2233 miles
