Day 54: Le Grau du Roi to Saintes Marie

April 12, 2025

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Although our hotel was not on the main harbour channel at Grau du Roi it was on a connected harbour . That meant that immediately out of our door as we set off, we could observe all the fishing boats. One came in, and we watched with interest as it did a three point turn and then backed into a berth. In the photo below, its the white one with the grey looking hull, in the midst of turning around.

We thought we might see some fish unloading, and indeed a forklift came with a big bin, but for some reason it went away.

We gave up on seeing fish just then, and carried on down the street. But we didn't get far. Carrying on with what we have been saying about our welcome as Canadians in France, a man stopped just to say welcome to France. He also told us that an annual event was happening at the port at 10, in which the fishers would share tastes of their catch. We went by for a look at the preparations, but we of course will never dilly dally, even one hour, for something to start.

Following in the second aspect of our welcome here, the man ended our chat with crossed fingers for Canada, on both hands.

Welcome to France, and good luck, Canada.

Carrying on just a bit, we came to one of the largest gatherings of Cormorants we have seen.

One or more had white tummies, and we thought this might be something diffrrent, but according to Merlin - no, all Great Cormorants.

Next along the street, some evidence on how much local people like wine!

Until at last we arrived at the (fairly) well remembered harbour channel. This channel leads out to the sea, and had fishing boats moored along it. Off the laneway beside the channel there are a variety of restaurants and also hotels. It's a good bet that the fish at those restaurants is fresh!

To continue on our way, we would need to cross the channel, using the bridge that is about half way down. The bridge has a car lane and a pedestrian/bike lane. We started along the pedestrian/bike way and were down it a bit when Dodie remembered we wanted to go see that fish celebration in preparation. So we backed out. I had no trouble, but for Dodie it was reminiscent of backing that Peugeot 408. In short, she had trouble going straight back. A pedestrian coming the other way gave directions. It was good fun for all.

Out toward the end of the channel, tents had been set up, but as yet nothing happening.

We rode out to the lighthouse at the end of the channel, and then back past the celebration tents and on to the half way bridge.

This gave us a further look at all the boats, restaurants, and hotels:

Over the bridge, this being France, it didn't take long before ...

No matter, we found a workaround, and were soon out in the wetlands in the short span between Grau du Roi and the walled town of Aigues Mortes.

The water by the road had some of the usual cast of bird characters:

Soon we arrived at the walled town:

Storming the castle now is just a matter of passing through one of the several gates, like the one below.

All roads inside seem to lead to St Louis Square, in the middle of the town. The square is dominated by a statue of Louis IX. "Louis IX, also known as Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death in 1270. He is widely recognized as the most distinguished of the Direct Capetians. Following the death of his father, Louis VIII, he was crowned in Reims at the age of 12"

A typical street leading to the outer wall.

The streets are filled by cafés, souvenir shops, bakeries, and sweets shops.

In other French towns these would be storks

This bar looked typical - typical of France too.

Our food bag was full, but these looked good!

Good sandwiches are a hallmark of French bakeries.

We ran though the UQs with a man from Switzerland. He had been to British Columbia and Yukon.

Dodie gave one of our flag pins to the Swiss man's little son, hidden in this photo.

I nipped into the St Louis church, and found it very spare, and thereby no doubt true to its original appearance.

Stained glass was simple, kind of fanciful.

From Aigues Mortes we began to enter ever more deeply into the heart of the Camargue we have come to know quite well. Just as depicted with the souvenirs, this heart holds the Camargue horses, the black bulls, and the flamingos:

But we were surprised by a showing from a creature that does not quite get star billing on the postcards - the Gull, in this case the Black Headed Gull. In some fields off the road we noticed thousands of them wheeling about, landing, and taking off again, all with a tremendous racket. We were able tpo get a lot of images and even a short video. It looked like this:

Along the main road that leads into the heart of the Camargue there are a few (not many) farm markets, selling the regional produce: rice, muscat wine, sausage made from the black cattle, salt, olive oil, ...

Here is one of the nicer ones:

Old Citroen outside to draw the customers' attention.

These strawberries are a variety called Clery. It was developed on Italy for warmer climates. They are good, in that at least the centres are red, but I found them rather lacking in sweetness.

We had to eat this whole thing, because we had no non squashy space for carrying them.

Salt is a big product here, and we will go visit some salt works in another day. See how the packaging features bulls, horses, and the Camargue cross.

The salt is very coarse. At first I thought this was rice.

Ok, here is the rice. There is black and red in addition to white.

Olive oil and muscat wine in bulk. It would be interesting to compare the prices with the similar product when bought back home.

We are finding the European birding site finder to be very helpful. It led us to this reserve, which is very near the Petit Rhone, a branch of the main river that branches off to find its own way to the sea, north of Arles. The reserve consists of 5-7 km of trails and blinds, surrounding a fairly large wet land.

Our walk around and visits to the several well built blinds allowed us to see quite a few individual birds in a good selection of species. No Bee Eaters, though, and though Merlin detected several non water bird species in the reeds, they were almost impossible to spot. Here is a sample of what we did see:

These guys are young, or need to find more shrimp for colour.

We spent a fairly long time in the preserve, not least because their signage was not great. We had visions of another death march in the sun around an impossibly large wetland and hemmed in by reeds. But we did make it out!

Once out, we had to make our run for the hotel near the town of Saintes Marie. We had fortunately chosen one 7 km closer to us than the town centre would have been. On the way we ran into many Camargue horses, and to my delight, a dozen or more live just by the hotel. I went out and interviewed a pair of them on video for the grandkids. My topics were what is it like living with the other nearby horses, and do my pair work in the riding stable, or just hang out in the paddock?

Bonus question: what kind of "grasshopper" is this?

Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 1,600 km (994 miles)

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