France
Saint-Laurent-d'Aigouze

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    • Day 51

      Aigues Mortes

      June 21, 2022 in France ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

      Half uurtje later op, half uurtje later weg. Tien over half acht rijden we van de camping af. Op de kaart gezien dat er aan de overkant een landweggetje moet zijn. We nemen onze tijd om over te steken en rijden dit in. Diverse borden dat we er niet in mogen slaan we in de wind. Veel kuilen en kiezels, geen auto's, prima oplossing dus.

      Aigues Mortes heeft een mooie vestingsmuur en we gaan de poort binnen om verder te kijken. Zo om kwart over acht zien we het stadje ontwaken en heel veel mensen in touw om alles schoon te maken en winkels te openen. Het stadje maakt zich weer op voor een drukke dag lijkt het.
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    • Day 51

      Camargue

      June 21, 2022 in France ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

      Eerst flinke stukken langs het Rhone-Sète-kanaal dan volgt een stuk door een punt van het natuurgebied Camargue. Wat opvalt is dat er weer gedag gezegd wordt onderweg. Het landschap verandert weer. Moeras afgewisseld met 'vreemde' bollen, rijstvelden, wijngaarden en stieren. Behoorlijk smalle weg, weinig verkeer, veel wind. Ondanks dat muggen niet van wind houden weten ze me op de fiets zelfs te vinden. We trappen maar even flink door en zijn dan ook even na elf uur op de camping in Saint Gilles.Read more

    • Day 50

      Petit Camargue

      June 20, 2022 in France ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

      De kampeerplekken zijn weer volledige (zwarte) zandbakken. We krijgen een redelijke plek die we inruilen voor een nog betere. Deze camping is zeker niet 'complet'. Even speuren en we vinden weer een steen die dienst doet als hamer. Na het opzetten gaan we het zwembad in, heerlijk warm en relaxed. Douche erachter aan en we zijn weer fris.Read more

    • Day 26

      Carmargue

      November 25, 2022 in France ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

      Camargue🦩🦩
      Von Port Saint Louis du Rhône nach Montcalm
      Mit der Fähre über die Rhône, zum Salt Pan Observatorium ( Saline), mit dem Fahrrad über den Damm zum Leuchtturm Phare de La Gacholle und weiter über teils abenteuerliche Strassen zu dem Stellplatz am Bauernhof wo ich jetzt stehe.Read more

    • Day 18

      A Terrible Crime is Discovered

      September 7, 2019 in France ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

      After 8 days on the boat, I would be lying a little if I said that we were sorry to be leaving the confines of our cabin. It is not exactly easy to live in a space about the same size as a dwarf's coffin. Although each person evolves their own survival strategies for storing their gear, washing themselves and doing their laundry, as the week progresses it is normal for each person to start fantasizing about what they are going to do when they get to a hotel room. "I can't wait to see inside my case again", "I am going to spend an entire hour under the shower", "I will wash my socks and undies for the first time in a week"," I haven't brushed my teeth since leaving Melbourne", and so on.

      By 8 am our riders were dragging their cases up the winding stairs from the cabins to the main deck. With so little room to move , it was a miracle that no one was crushed under the weight of a falling suitcase. Three men helped Carol and Sam manouevre their bulging bags to the deck. It was obvious that our time on the boat had drawn to a close.

      I advised everyone to do a double check of their rooms to make sure that no tiny item had been overlooked. A few minutes later Sam poked her head up the staircase to announce that she had found that Carol had left about half of her belongings in the drawer under the bed. That was the reason her case only weighed 19 kg. Some time later Carol had retrieved several kg more of her (nearly) lost luggage and we started saying our final goodbyes to our new American friends.

      The strange thing is that, after a few days, we will all forget the difficult aspects of boat living, and then only recall all the laughs and fun we shared together. Next year we will back on another bike and barge along the Moselle.

      It was only as we were starting to drag our cases to the shore that things took a dark turn. Arie appeared with a look of shock and anger on his face. "Three of the ebike locks are missing", he shouted. We looked at each other, wondering why anyone would want to add a 3 kg chain and lock to their already heavy suitcases. "This has never happened before", he added. It was apparently a very serious matter. In Europe wars have apparently started over less serious issues.

      We all then embarked on a hue and cry to look for the missing chains. Panniers were stripped, cupboards were opened, guilty ebike riders were questioned under a bright light. Locks were counted and recounted, but the total was still three short. I thought that the brilliant Inspector Clouseau might be rushed from Paris to help crack the infamous case of the stolen locks. After all, this had all the makings of an international incident involving France, Australia, the USA and Holland. Although Donald Trump would probably downplay it as "fake news", it was becoming quite stressful for us.

      After an interminable period of searching and hypothesizing about the location of the missing locks, I came to the conclusion that they were probably somewhere on the bottom of the canal. Arie had no choice other than to admit that they had truly disappeared and he reluctantly allowed us to leave the boat. It was a slightly disappointing end to a fun ride, but I am sure that they will turn up somewhere and the tarnished reputation of the Ghostriders will be rightfully restored.

      We then formed a luggage peloton to drag our bags across the city to the hotel we had booked for the next two nights. In spite of a few rough cobblestoned sections, we all managed to reach the Hotel Chez Carriere without suffering a serious castor malfunction. The hotel is situated in an ideal location, right near the centre of the old walled city. It will make a lovely temporary base of operations while we explore the town.

      The name Aigues Mortes means "Dead Waters" and the swampy region has been used as a place to harvest salt since Roman times. The large areas of marshland also make it an ideal breeding ground for hungry mosquitoes. The recorded history of the town dates back thousands of years and the huge fortified city wall that now stands here played a significant role in the Crusades of the 13th century.

      The pilgrims and penitents that helped establish the city must have been a very colourful bunch. Over the past few days we have discovered chapels for the "White Penitents", the "Black Penitents" and even the "Grey Penitents". I am not sure exactly what a "grey penitent" is, but perhaps they were a sort of medieval fence sitter. The only thing missing was a chapel for the rainbow penitents, but I guess they came several centuries later.

      Maggie and I spent most of the afternoon wandering the narrow streets of the old city. The town has an inordinate number of cafes and art galleries, obviously catering largely for tourism. In the cool of the evening these outdoor cafes are packed with diners, and the streets echo with the sounds from numerous buskers. I am sure we will all return to Australia with amazing memories of our time spent here. The name might mean dead waters, but the place ceratinly seems full of life to me.
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    • Day 10

      Camargue

      March 24 in France ⋅ 🌬 18 °C

      Unser Weg zu unseren nächsten Stopp führte uns noch einmal durch die Feuchtwiesen der Camargue. Im Flussdelta der Rhone wurden keine Flingomine gesucht. Heute mussten die Socken (mit Flamingo 🦩 - Motiv) der „ber“ reichen. Dafür sahen wir die Camargue-Pferde und die schwarzen Stiere 🐂, die für diese Region bekannt sind.Read more

    • Day 19

      Very Unwelcome News from Home

      September 8, 2019 in France ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

      It is not easy travelling on an extended overseas holiday when you have pets at home. After all, they don’t seem to be able to look after themselves. Not only do they require feeding, dogs also need daily walks and cats need to have their every wish catered for. Fortunately there exists a particular kind of nomad called the “housesitter”. These people have adopted a gypsy lifestyle, whereby they exchange free accommodation and utilities in return for caring for pets that have been deserted by their globetrotting owners.

      We have used the services of several different housesitters in the past and have found that the arrangement was mutually beneficial to all parties concerned. We had assumed the same thing would apply this time, after all we had driven all the way down to Geelong to meet the potential sitter, many months before we were due to leave. We even introduced her to the dog that she would be looking after. We had no reason to believe that things would not go well.

      As it turned out the arrangements seemed to be going well for the two and a half weeks we have been travelling for. For the first few days we even got sent emailed “happy snaps” showing how well the cat and dog were being looked after. Even when the communications started to slow down, we assumed that all was going well. You can therefore imagine my surprise when I got a short message saying that the housesitter had decided to immediately pack up and leave. No warning, no opportunity to make other plans – she had just packed her bags and gone, leaving the pets in an empty house. Even more surprising was the way she ended her message with “have a happy holiday”.

      To say that this constituted something of a curveball would be an understatement. We then spent much of the morning on the phone trying to put alternate makeshift plans into operation. We have never heard of a sitter acting in such an irresponsible way before, but there was little we could do about it when we were on the other side of the planet. When Maggie’s sister arrived at our house to see what had happened, she found that not only were the animals left unattended, but the front door had been left damaged, the airconditioner was broken, the washing machine had been moved and some towels had been taken. I suppose under such circumstances we should have been glad that she had not stayed for the full two months as I don’t think the house would have survived. I guess we have learned to be far more selective in our choice of any future potential house sitters. In the meantime we will have to somehow get by with “Plan B” for the next 6 weeks.

      Since today was going to be our final full day in Aigues Mortes, I did not want the entire time there to be spoilt by the unwelcome news we had received. We had already decided that we should all visit the ramparts that surround the city. These fortified walls extend around the full 1.7 km perimeter of the old city and certainly would have posed a significant obstacle for any would be medieval invader.

      If we had been aged between 18 to 25 years of age we would have been able to get access for free. For some reason the ticket seller would not believe that I fell in that age range and charged me the full price of 8 Euro. There was no concession for old Australians at all, even if our ancestors had helped rescue France from destruction in both world wars.

      Once we climbed the stairs to the top of the imposing main tower I had to admit that it was worth every cent of the admission charge. The views out over the surrounding flat marshes were magnificent. In front of us we could see the long canal that our boat had followed to reach the city. I then spent the next 90 minutes walking the entire length of the ramparts. At irregular intervals the walls are punctuated by a succession of larger constructions. These were used for various functions, including chapels, prisons, forts, etc. The sheer amount of material and effort that had gone into the construction must have been incredible.

      By the middle of the afternoon I was feeling tired and returned to my room at the Chez Carriere. Our room was situated next door to Gael and Gerry’s. For some reason Gerry seemed to have an inordinate amount of difficulty unlocking their door. Every 30 minutes or so we would hear a prolonged ritual of clanking, banging, key turning, often punctuated by a period of loud cursing. Just when you thought that they had finally opened the door, it would start all over again. I am sure that it would have been easier to make a hole through the 5 metres thick stone ramparts, than to turn the key in Gerry’s lock. Although I tried to instruct him on the correct technique for opening this sort of lock, it was obviously a skill that he never managed to master. To the contrary, he actually seemed to get noisier with each successive opening and closing.

      Although we had no such difficulty with our lock, we did manage to almost shake the building from its foundations several times when we accidentally let the door slam shut. On such occasions I think the resultant bang would have been audible in Paris. In spite of these minor hiccups, the hotel really was a fantastic place to stay. The rooms were clean and comfortable, the air conditioners worked well, the location was perfect and the manager was delightful.

      Tomorrow we will be bidding adieu to Aigues Mortes as we undertake a gruelling all day train odyssey to take us to Nevers to begin the second part of our cycling adventure. After a three day break, I am sure that all our team is very eager to get rolling again.
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    • Day 10

      Aigues Mortes

      March 24 in France ⋅ 🌬 16 °C

      Der kleine Ort Aigues Mortes liegt am Rande der Camargue. Die ist eine der größten noch erhaltenen mittelalterlichen Festungsstädte. Ihr Name bedeutet Stadt der „toten Wasser“. Sie wurde im 13. Jahrhundert gegründet. Ihre 11 m hohe Stadtmauer mit den 15 Türmen umschließt die rechtwinklig angelegten Gasen komplett. Auf dem Place Saint Louis sind viele Restaurants mit ihren Terrasse ansässig. Wir entschlossen uns, bei diesem herrlichen Wetter hier Platz zu nehmen und etwas zu essen.Read more

    • Day 201

      Stadtmauer und Salz

      January 5 in France ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

      Heute haben wir die mittelalterliche Festungsstadt Aigues-Mortes besucht. Die Stadt entstand auf Wunsch von Ludwig IX. (später Ludwig der Heilige) auf einem schmalen, sumpfigen Landstreifen. Er ließ Kanäle vom Meer bis Montpellier und Arles anlegen und einen Hafen errichten. Dadurch war die Stadt bis ins 16. Jahrhundert ein bedeutender Verkehrsknotenpunkt der französischen Mittelmeerküste.
      Einen guten Blick über Stadt und Umgebung hat man von der 1,6 km langen Stadtmauer, mit 10 Stadttoren und 20 Türmen (wir haben nicht mitgezählt).
      In der Stadt selber war nicht viel los, kein Wunder bei dem Wetter. Nach einem Rundgang haben wir uns deshalb auf den Weg zu den Salz Salinen vor der Stadtmauer.
      Mit einer Bimmelbahn wird man durch einen Teil der mehrere tausend Hektar großen Salinenlandschaft gefahren. Leider wurde nur auf französisch erklärt, aber da wir schon wussten wie das Salz gewonnen wird, war das nicht schlimm.
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    • Day 2

      Erster Tag in St. Marie de la mere

      June 5, 2022 in France ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

      Nach einem ausgiebigen Frühstück mit leckeren französischen Croissants, machten wir uns auf den Weg die Umgebung zu erkunden. Auf ging es nach Aigues Mortes. Da heute Pfingstsonntag ist waren sehr viele Menschen unterwegs.
      Nach 15.00h waren wir wieder auf dem Campingplatz.
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