South of France - Part II
2/6/05
In the evening we left Aix and went to Sausset les Pins, close to Marseille, to stay at the house of Mirreille and Gerard, two motorcycle lovers. Gerard arrived just a few minutes after us, from his motocross (superbike) session. We chatted a little bit and soon it was time for dinner. Mireille served us: Tomate a la Provençale with pork chops, roasted potatoes and, of course, wine! Ou la la…
2/7/05
In the morning Mireille drove us to Ste Croix, a village by the Mediterranean sea. Here, we found a little church, right by the shore, where the wives of the fishermen were coming to pray when there was a storm. An interesting detail is that the church does not have a cross at the top front, but an anchor.
Few meters ahead there are two leftovers from the second war, a bunker, in which you can’t even get in anymore because it is filled up with earth, and the ruins of an observation point used to spot the enemy on that coast.
From there we went to Martigues; the attraction here is La Petite Venice, a kind of mini Venice, very small by the way, but really cute.
We went back home for lunch and after a delicious Moules Frites a la Provençale, we - Mireille, Gerard, Angie and I - left to visit Marseille. Our first stop was the Ste Lorin church, built in 14th century.
From there we can see the remains of a fort as Gerard explained to me. What is unusual about it is that the cannons were pointing to the city and not the the sea - to control the crazy people of Marseille according to my friendly guide.
An old charity house, historical site of the city, was used to help the homeless from that time, they would find food and shelter there. What caught the attention of Gerard is that by reading the explanation at the entrance of the place, the French text is different then the English, and seems to be more realistic. The French explanation state that the place was used to keep the homeless enclosed in there, in other words, away from the streets of the city.
That might be actually more accurate, since the whole place has no windows to the outside, but only to the chapel in the middle of the yard.
Resisting the time and the changes is a little Fisherman neighborhood, where the boats are right in front of the houses.
After that, we climbed the hill and went to the Basilica Notre Dame de la Guarde.
It is at the top of a mount where from you can see the whole Marseille, very nice view of the city. Inside of the church there are lots of little boats hanging. The fishermen use to make a little replica of their boats and bring it to the church to ask for protection.
Just before heading home we passed by what is considered the Champs Elysée of Marseille and then stopped by the Palais Longchamp, a museum today.
2/8/05
Next day we went to visit the Camargue region, known for having wild bulls and horses freely running around in its fields. There are also lots of flamingos, one of the symbols of Camargue. We went to check the Salin De Girard, a salt production site, but it seems that in winter no salt is being produced, we were expecting to see the huge piles of salt but they just weren't there.
We drove around the Etang de Vaccarès which should be renamed to Duck Lake, because there are thousands of ducks there, all over, and it is a very cool sight when a single duck decides to take off and all the rest goes after it.
The Flamingos are more sparse, but also very interesting.
After the lake we stopped by Ste-Marie de la Mer, a Gypsy city, in a region believed to be where the christianization of France started, around the 2nd century. Here, a rustic church has being the place of Gypsy pilgrimage since the 6th century. In the festivities days, they come from all over Europe and even from other continents. It's the Gypsy's Meca.
From there we went to see what I thought didn't exist anymore: Aigues-Mortes, a city with its ‘complete’ and original medieval wall around it.
The city has been built between 1272 and 1310 to be a port with access to the Mediterranean to trade with Italy and the Orient.
From there Louis IX left for the crusades on two occasions. But once Provence, a dependency of the German Holy Roman Empire, had become part of France in 1481, Marseille replaced Aigues-Mortes and that was a key point for the preservation of the walls. It is all there, a 'modern' city completely surrounded by middle age walls.
Of course today the city of Aigues-Mortes goes way beyond the walls but If you want to buy an apt inside the shield you can have it for a bargain of €500.000 for a 160m
We then went to Arles, a city with roman constructions dating from the 1st century B.C.. The Arena still hosts the corridas, when a guy challenges a bull.
Vincent van Gogh has produced around 600 paintings in Arles, including Cafe de Paris and La Chambre which is the room from the little house that you see in the picture below. Also, Picasso spent a lot of time in Arles to watch corridas and, loving the city, he donated 57 paintings that are currently in the local museum.
2/9/05
Next day we drove around Sausset; Mireille took us to les Petites Calanques of Mejan and of Niolon. On our way back to Aix, we stopped at the aqueduc of Roquefavour, a replica of a Roman aqueduc in Gars (another region of France).
In the evening we left Aix and went to Sausset les Pins, close to Marseille, to stay at the house of Mirreille and Gerard, two motorcycle lovers. Gerard arrived just a few minutes after us, from his motocross (superbike) session. We chatted a little bit and soon it was time for dinner. Mireille served us: Tomate a la Provençale with pork chops, roasted potatoes and, of course, wine! Ou la la…
2/7/05
In the morning Mireille drove us to Ste Croix, a village by the Mediterranean sea. Here, we found a little church, right by the shore, where the wives of the fishermen were coming to pray when there was a storm. An interesting detail is that the church does not have a cross at the top front, but an anchor.
Few meters ahead there are two leftovers from the second war, a bunker, in which you can’t even get in anymore because it is filled up with earth, and the ruins of an observation point used to spot the enemy on that coast.
From there we went to Martigues; the attraction here is La Petite Venice, a kind of mini Venice, very small by the way, but really cute.
We went back home for lunch and after a delicious Moules Frites a la Provençale, we - Mireille, Gerard, Angie and I - left to visit Marseille. Our first stop was the Ste Lorin church, built in 14th century.
From there we can see the remains of a fort as Gerard explained to me. What is unusual about it is that the cannons were pointing to the city and not the the sea - to control the crazy people of Marseille according to my friendly guide.
An old charity house, historical site of the city, was used to help the homeless from that time, they would find food and shelter there. What caught the attention of Gerard is that by reading the explanation at the entrance of the place, the French text is different then the English, and seems to be more realistic. The French explanation state that the place was used to keep the homeless enclosed in there, in other words, away from the streets of the city.
That might be actually more accurate, since the whole place has no windows to the outside, but only to the chapel in the middle of the yard.
Resisting the time and the changes is a little Fisherman neighborhood, where the boats are right in front of the houses.
After that, we climbed the hill and went to the Basilica Notre Dame de la Guarde.
It is at the top of a mount where from you can see the whole Marseille, very nice view of the city. Inside of the church there are lots of little boats hanging. The fishermen use to make a little replica of their boats and bring it to the church to ask for protection.
Just before heading home we passed by what is considered the Champs Elysée of Marseille and then stopped by the Palais Longchamp, a museum today.
2/8/05
Next day we went to visit the Camargue region, known for having wild bulls and horses freely running around in its fields. There are also lots of flamingos, one of the symbols of Camargue. We went to check the Salin De Girard, a salt production site, but it seems that in winter no salt is being produced, we were expecting to see the huge piles of salt but they just weren't there.
We drove around the Etang de Vaccarès which should be renamed to Duck Lake, because there are thousands of ducks there, all over, and it is a very cool sight when a single duck decides to take off and all the rest goes after it.
The Flamingos are more sparse, but also very interesting.
After the lake we stopped by Ste-Marie de la Mer, a Gypsy city, in a region believed to be where the christianization of France started, around the 2nd century. Here, a rustic church has being the place of Gypsy pilgrimage since the 6th century. In the festivities days, they come from all over Europe and even from other continents. It's the Gypsy's Meca.
From there we went to see what I thought didn't exist anymore: Aigues-Mortes, a city with its ‘complete’ and original medieval wall around it.
The city has been built between 1272 and 1310 to be a port with access to the Mediterranean to trade with Italy and the Orient.
From there Louis IX left for the crusades on two occasions. But once Provence, a dependency of the German Holy Roman Empire, had become part of France in 1481, Marseille replaced Aigues-Mortes and that was a key point for the preservation of the walls. It is all there, a 'modern' city completely surrounded by middle age walls.
Of course today the city of Aigues-Mortes goes way beyond the walls but If you want to buy an apt inside the shield you can have it for a bargain of €500.000 for a 160m
We then went to Arles, a city with roman constructions dating from the 1st century B.C.. The Arena still hosts the corridas, when a guy challenges a bull.
Vincent van Gogh has produced around 600 paintings in Arles, including Cafe de Paris and La Chambre which is the room from the little house that you see in the picture below. Also, Picasso spent a lot of time in Arles to watch corridas and, loving the city, he donated 57 paintings that are currently in the local museum.
2/9/05
Next day we drove around Sausset; Mireille took us to les Petites Calanques of Mejan and of Niolon. On our way back to Aix, we stopped at the aqueduc of Roquefavour, a replica of a Roman aqueduc in Gars (another region of France).
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