Belinda, Jon, Hamish and Tess are travelling around the
canals on a little yacht. They were moored for a few days in Aigues-Mortes, (which
means "dead waters") about an hour’s drive from Uzès, so we met them
there. On board the boat, we chatted over morning tea - tea, fruit and pastries, (including fougasse d'Aigues Mortes - a sweet, very-local speciality... somewhat oddly puchased from the Uzès Saturday market as we hurried through to our car that morning) and the adults chatted and drank more tea, while the kids played.
Later we meandered through the town within the very well-preserved medieval fortifications, lingering in the central square while the children played around the fountain, and then had a quick lunch of baguettes and quiche.
Later we meandered through the town within the very well-preserved medieval fortifications, lingering in the central square while the children played around the fountain, and then had a quick lunch of baguettes and quiche.
It was so lovely to spend time with another family from home, to trade war stories and highlights of our travels, and for
the kids to hang out with other little Aussies.
On our drive back to Uzès, after dipping our toes in the Mediterranean Sea at Le Grau Du Roi, we managed to see a few of the famed flamingos of the Camargue region.
On our drive back to Uzès, after dipping our toes in the Mediterranean Sea at Le Grau Du Roi, we managed to see a few of the famed flamingos of the Camargue region.
PS the
history of Aigues-Mortes is very interesting too. Here’s how the tourist brochure describes it:
In 1240, Pope Innocent IV called upon the European sovereigns to lead a crusade to take back Jerusalem and the Holy Land. King Louis IX responded and took charge of the Seventh Crusade. In the 13th century, the French king had no land on the Mediterranean shore; Provence belonged to the Holy Roman Empire and Languedoc-Roussillon to the Kings of Aragon. King Louis decided to build a port at Aigues-Mortes, situated at 6 km from the sea. Offering high country land near Sommières, he arranged a trade with the Abbey Brothers of Psalmody to acquire the swamplands known as “dead waters” or stagnant waters. Aigues-Mortes, then situated on the shore of a large lagoon, joined the sea via a branch of the Rhône and river delta channels. In order to attract settlers to his new city, unfortunately surrounded by acres of malaria-riddled swamps, Louis granted exemptions from tolls, port taxes and forced loans in 1246.
Aigues-Mortes thrived as a trading port. At last, after much preparation, King Louis IX left Aigues-Mortes in 1248, with 100 ships. He returned to France six years later, embarking a second time in 1270 from Aigues-Mortes to Tunisia, on the Eighth Crusade. Within a month, he felt [sic] victim to typhus at Carthage.
A notable feature of the town is its ramparts. They were financed by a tax on merchandise from 1268: the port of Aigues-Mortes was on one of the principal trade routes from the Republic of Genoa, and was a centre for exporting dyed cloth, and importing “spices, silks and luxury products from the Orient”. Construction commenced in 1272, and was completed sometime during the last two decades of the 13th or beginning of the 14th century. The ramparts were “[b]uilt on a wooden foundation supported by oak staves, the limestone blocks, quarried at Beaucaire and Les Baux de Provence were transported to Aigues-Mortes by boat."
Not sure if my last comment worked... it was "Yay, you are back!"
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