Last day in the south

With any luck, we will be taking the train to Paris tomorrow.  We have asked several people if there is any possibility of a train strike tomorrow, but they don't know. I guess we won't know for sure until we are on the train.

At any rate, today we did our last bit of sight seeing in Arles.  We shopped at the great Saturday market, then this afternoon visited the Musee Reattu.  It is housed in a restored 15th century building that was the Grand Priory of the Knights of Malta.

Their collection features 2 paintings and 57 sketches by Picasso.  As the Picasso Museum in Paris is still closed for renovations, this is probably the biggest collection of Picasso works we will be able to see on our visit to France.  The sketches consisted of several, really quite charming, thematic progressions.

The building was guarded by some great gargoyls.

Sara

Saintes Marie-Salome and Marie-Jacobe are the two saints for which Saintes Maries de la Mer is named.  A third person, Sara, the patron saint of the gitans (or gypsies) either traveled with them, or greeted them when they arrived at the site, in a small boat.  While all of these women are honored locally, this past weekend, thousands of gitans made their annual pilgrimage to Stes-Maries de la Mer, to celebrate Sara.  We avoided the celebration days, but saw caravans of campers heading into and out the area.  We also saw a convoy of gendarmes leaving the area after the celebration.

At any rate, Sara is very important to the gitan culture.

Today, we visited the Musee de Camargue, and enjoyed seeing a variety of artistic representations of Sara, some of which I am sharing here today.

This last depiction of Sara is very respectful of her as a patron saint, but seems to not reflect well on the Saintes Maries.

A closeup of Sara, patron saint of the gitans

Sara with the two Saintes Maries, in their little boat

Pont du Gard

Today, we drove up to view the world's tallest Roman bridge -- Pont du Gard. It is 50 meters high, 360 meters long, has 3 levels, and was built about 2000 years ago to bring water from Uzes to Nimes.  Pont du Gard is a Unesco World Heritage site.  This is quite an impressive work of Roman engineering.

A schematic diagram of the entire aquaduct system from Uzes to Nimes

We arrived on the south side, the right bank (rive droite), then walked across the lower level of the bridge, and visited the visitor's center on the left bank (rive gauche).

The aquaduct was in operation for 500 years before calcium deposits along the sides of the water channel made using it impractical.

View from the right bank, downstream of bridge

View from the right bank, downstream of bridge

View from the right bank, downstream of bridge

View from the right bank, downstream of bridge

View of the Gard River, downstream from the bridge

View of the Gard River, upstream from the bridge

View downstream, from the left bank

Plage de Piemanson

The Camargue ends where the Grand Rhone meets the Mediterranean Sea.  Plage de Piemanson is the beach you will find there.

I was determined to walk into the sea, so I took off my shoes and headed in.  Alas, it is too chilly (low 70's?) to swim, although I did see one man in the water for a few minutes.

This beach is where people drive their campers and set up camp for extended periods.  There are no services at this site.

We stopped for an authentic local meal at Estrambord in Le Sambuc, on our way back to Arles.

Our last road trip to the Camargue

This morning, we headed south into the wildest part of the Camargue, along the eastern side of the eastern edge of the nature reserve.  We started out on a nature trail at La Capeliere.  The trail featured a variety of habitats and several bird blinds.  Most of the birds were hiding, but we saw several grey herons, a black-winged stilt, some ducks, swallows, and a flock of great tits (I think).  We heard lots of enchanting calls.  And swallows were nesting inside two of the blinds.

Marsh

A view from the blind

A viewing blind

Marsh

Swallow's nest

One of the nesting swallows

Our chariot

Just before the end of the road, at Plage de Piemanson, we encountered about 20 swans in the ponds east of the road.  They were a surprise, because we have been mistaking foraging flamingos for swans several times this week.

Cycling through the Camargue

Yesterday, we rented bicycles in Saintes Maries de la Mer, and headed east along a bike path to a lighthouse 13 kilometers away.  Most of the path was pretty easy to ride, but we did encounter some stretches where sand had drifted across the path, and we had to mostly pull the bicycles through the sand drifts.

The route map, with the green arrow indicating the lighthouse

The lighthouse

An egret

We saw lots of birds, but the most impressive of all were the "pink" flamingos.  They certainly didn't show much pink until they were flying.  Walking, they appeared quite white.  Their color might be related to diet.

The flamingos are in leg-deep water, and are foraging.

Canoeing the petite Rhone

Yesterday, we went canoeing along the petite Rhone, in the Camargue, a largely natural area south of Arles.  It is a pretty quiet river.  Two French couples were also canoeing. We all piled into a van and were transported upstream to put in the canoes.  The section of the river that we paddled was about 12 kilometers in length.

Our journey was graced by a swan flying over us, several night herons flushing from the trees, great gray herons, egrets, ibises, a few sandpipers, and a brilliant blue and rust colored bird that I'm still trying to identify.  We heard lots of really great bird calls that sounded completely unfamiliar.  We heard a cuckoo calling across the river.

Luckily, the pull out spot was just before the only bridge across the river.  Otherwise, we might have missed it.

The French canoeists

A rare beach on the river