Day 50 – Friday 27th April 2018
Something funny happened to my hearing yesterday. After I’d had a shower suddenly my hearing was different. Everything sounds clearer and louder. The shower heads here fire out a very fine spray and I can only assume they washed something out when I was getting the soap out of my ears. Very strange but it would explain why I was oblivious to so many alarms when I worked for NATS.
Grey start to the day as we set off for Gassin a village a few miles inland. Beautiful ride there, a few hairpin bends but nothing ridiculously tight.
Gassin is a typical old French village – set on a hilltop and immaculately kept, the only commercialisation being a couple of arty shops and four or five expensive looking restaurants.
The church at Gassin
La Croix Valmer from Gassin, Joan’s villa is somewhere over there.
The woman in the Office de Tourisme told us that Gassin was home to the world’s smallest road.
I think she meant narrowest, they don’t call me Reigate Slim for nothing.
Later we popped into St Tropez. Julie is looking for a souvenir of the place.
Fridge magnets are big on the French Riviera, who buys them?
We watched a smallish super yacht named Zeus dock. According to superyachtfan.com it cost $50m and is owned by a property developer called John Christodoulou.
Zeus
This old bloke was perfectly happy fishing here before the yacht decided to berth
Eventually he got the message
While in St Tropez we tried a couple of baby Tart Tropeziennes.
Very nice
Day 51 – Saturday 28th April 2018
Nice weather, had a bit of a lie in then set off for the market at St Tropez, turned out to quite a big market selling all sorts.
Food
Clothes
It was packed
man with garlic bulbs on his hat
Had lunch by the harbour wall, watched that Zeus head back out to sea.
In the evening we set off to have diner at a restaurant in Grimaud we saw earlier this week which actually uses the word végétarienne in its menu.
It was closed!
We decided to got into Port Grimaud where we had a Gallette each before buying ice creams and having a wander around in the evening sun. A great day.
Day 52 – Sunday 29th April 2018
Weather a little overcast & humid, a quiet day watching Netflix and getting ready to move tomorrow.
Day 53 – Monday 30th April 2018
The plan is to go to Camping Clos du Rhone near Saintes-Maries-de-la-mer in the very south of the Camargue. We will be using motorways and tolls to get there because there are a couple of big towns on the coast road, Toulon & Marseilles, and I don’t want Doris routing me over mountains or down any dirt tracks. I have phoned ahead and they say they have pitches available and I have the GPS co-ordinates so it should be a day without drama.
The only drama enroute was Doris announcing ‘In 2.6 miles turn right onto unpaved road’ which 2.6 miles later proved to be paved; I must deselect wind-up merchant in the options.
Enroute we saw the The Patrouille de France, the French version of the Red Arrows, near Arles doing some practice with red, white & blue smoke trails but the real highlight of the journey was when we saw a flock of flamingos fly low over the road right in front of us as we neared the campsite.
Camping Clos du Rhone is an okay site even if the pitches are a little small but the Mozzies round here are very keen, I was bitten while I unloaded Zippy and even though I’ve only had the door open for a few seconds I’ve caught and killed 3 in the van already. Worryingly there is still one on the loose in the van. We have invested in some spray that’s supposed to keep them at bay but I am going to see if I can build up a tolerance to them rather than slather myself in insecticide.
We motored into Saintes-Maries-de-la-mer, it is choc-a-bloc with tat shops, tourists and seafood restaurants. We had a look around the church.
This is Saint Sara, patron saint of the Romani.
Saint Sara’s day is May 24th when thousands of Gypsies make a pilgrimage to the Camargue and carry the statue into the sea. We’ll be elsewhere that day.
Julie up on the church roof; no surprise there’s no lead up here
Got the little bastard!
Day 54 – Tuesday 1st May 2018
Rained early on, mid-morning we set off on Zippy for the Parc Ornitholoique Pont du Gau, it’s a series of shallow ponds on the edge of Etang (lake) de Ginès. They have lots of different birds there but we came to see the flamingos, the Rose flamingos.
Rose Flamingos are the only type of flamingo we have in Europe
They do spend a lot of time standing on one leg with their beaks stuffed into their feathers. When they stand on one leg the other folded leg juts out behind the bird.
Wikipedia tells me that flamingos are not born pink. They are born with grey feathers, which gradually turn pink in the wild because of a natural pink dye called canthaxanthin that they obtain from their diet of brine shrimp and blue-green algae
A pink flamingo engaging with a grey flamingo
saw a few Coypu
Day 55 – Wednesday 2nd May 2018
Beautiful if breezy day; the Camargue is the delta for the Rhone and it is super flat, there’s absolutely nothing to stop the Mistral wind.
Off for a trip down the Petite Rhone on the Tiki III. Really windy on the boat.
The Tiki III
We got to see some Camargue bulls
and some Camargue horses.
Camargue horses are born various shades of brown, change to greys as they get older then to white when they are fully grown.
After lunch I went to explore the eastern side of Staintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. More flamingos
More flamingos
Back in Staintes-Maries-de-la-Mer they had one of their Course Camarguaise events on.
This is a statue of a bull called Garlan who seems to be famous round here
Arenes Staintes-Maries-de-la-Mer
The Course Camarguaise is a bloodless bullfight where men dressed in white, Raseteurs, try to remove things attached to a string between the bull’s horns. The bulls are not killed or physically hurt but its to be hoped the same can’t be said for the Raseteurs.
Day 56 – Thursday 3rd May 2018
Blowing a gale outside, had a lie-in then walked into town via the beach path, have a new appreciation for T.E. Lawrence.
the beaches here are lovely
In the afternoon we went into town to play the inaugural Camargue Open at Staintes-Maries-de-la-Mer jardin d’enfants.
The wind was fierce and playing conditions were difficult
it played havoc with Julie’s hair
Julie searches for her ball
I am always scrupulously honest with my score and I am always generous with Julie’s score (she cheats, I ignore it). I had a couple of nightmare holes towards the end and this led to a tie and a sudden death playoff.
un-fuckin-believable