Ouzo, Schnapps, Rosé & Prosecco

[OZDUCK]

Inside the walled city. A very tidy, well maintained city that is very pleasant to spend tim

Wikipedia: Aigues-Mortes is located in the Petite Camargue some 90 km (56 miles) northwest of Marseille. By road, Aigues-Mortes is about 33 km (21 miles) southwest of Nîmes, and 20 km (12 miles) east of Montpellier in a direct line.

... The foundation of the city is said to have been constructed (sic) by Gaius Marius, around 102BC but there is no documentary evidence to support this.

Some more lovely photos. I have been intrigued with Aigues-Mortes since the Tour de France went past it a couple of years ago and showed lots of footage of the city and its surrounds. Hopefully one day -----

 

[ellen10]

France is one of our favourite places to visit. In fact we have spent more time in France than any other European country.
There are still so many more places on our list.
I have enjoyed your travels and photos.

 

[Gem56]

More of Nimes

 

[Gem56]

We had wandered and viewed as much as we could given the heat of the day - 31 deg that day. Little did we realise that this was just the beginning of the hot weather to come.

We had an overnight stop in Marseilles, on our way to Les Sublettes.

We checked-in to the Marriott behind approx 6 large black vans loaded with gendarmes. There were also numerous police vans along the waterfront. The reason - France were playing Brazil in the FIFA Women's World Cup the following night.

Upon our check-in the receptionist told us to help ourselves to the mini-bar.

"Really???" we said. "Gosh, how generous!"

This is it !!!!! We're still laughing.

 

[Gem56]

Les Sublettes

Just getting our luggage out of our car when we were approached by a french lady who was quite excited about something. It was established that she had a flat tyre and needed JV's help. So, as any gentleman would do, he changed the tyre for her. No problem. When the job was done this lady and her friend wanted to shout us a drink, and we said it was not necessary. What about a coffee? "No, no" we said - it was no problem, happy to help. They had both become quite insistant that they show their gratitude somehow.

"OK - what about we show you around the promenade this evening." I agreed thinking this would eliminate their feeling of debt. So, we met at 7pm, and it wasn't long before they informed us that we were going to eat together. "Great" we said - how nice. "However, we are paying". We tried very hard to convince them it was not necessary but it was to no avail.

I told them about the day that I ran out of petrol on the Tuncurry Forster bridge on a very busy Sunday afternoon and 2 men pushed me off. I didn't buy them a drink or coffee and especially not dinner. My story didn't make the slightest amount of difference. Seems that we now have 2 new friends; they want us to stay with them should we return to this part of France and we have each other's numbers etc. Amazing what comes out of small things.
Thankfully JV's French had improved sufficiently so that he could at least converse with them... when they spoke slowly. As for me... no chance!

We were later to learn that the lady that owned the car is a Professor of Mathematics and teaches French in Rwanda and her friend is a Chemist and also works in Rwanda. Although they are retired they still work part time. Gorgeous ladies.

 

[Gem56]

Les Sublettes

Our accommodation was at the Curio Collection by Hilton, right on the beach. Great location and it was lovely. Our room wasn't terribly large, but for me, one of the biggest pluses was "NO SHUB". The bed was like heaven on a stick and the pillow likewise.







This was a block of chocolate

 

[Jacques Vert]

I quite like Hilton and as a Diamond (currently) I usually get well looked after.

Unfortunately, this is the only Hilton on the south coast of France. Nothing else on the coast between the Italian and Spanish borders, not even in Monaco.

 

[Gem56]

Views from our room

 

[Gem56]

There had been a storm which took all the sand away, so they were in the arduous process of trucking sand in and then spreading it out. This went on from 9pm to 6am each night. Each morning we could see the sand (presumably what had been spread out the just hours earlier) washing around in the surf. JV mentioned they should be perhaps looking at a dredge, We think they must have been listening... the morning of our departure a dredge was just sitting a few hundred metres off shore.

There were 2 of these big tippers bringing the sand.

 

[Gem56]

35 deg in Les Sablettes this day. Still lots of people out and about, sunbaking, playing Boules (which is very popular), riding bikes and excercising. It's gradually getting hotter by the day.





Exercise class - in the shade but still very hot


Playing boules in a scant amount of shade on this 35 deg day.

 

[Gem56]

A library on the beach - what a good idea!

 

[Gem56]

Le Lavandou. We stopped here for a look and an ice cream, that we almost had to drink! We did have a little walk around, however it wasn't long before we retreated for cooler areas - the car!

According to the ice cream man, it was unusually hot, however the day before it was 42 deg and it was expected to reach almost the same this day! We saw that it didn't reach that but was still in the mid to high 30s.

Look at the size of this agave!










The area on the left is divided up for boules - about 6 from memory


It must be a fantastic game to be out in that heat!

 

[Gem56]

Saint Maxime

Accommodation that night was at Hotel Martinengo . Now here's a place you don't want to stay! JV found this on Expedia. Listed as a 4 star - we don't honestly know how that has been rated.

The bed is hard and the pillows likewise; the sheer curtains on the 4 glass doors don't even cover the glass; there's no tea/coffee or even a kettle in the room; there may be wifi, however it's nearly impossible to connect to it - neither of our laptops or my phone could connect and what's more the manager doesn't really care; there's a fountain directly out the front that hasn't been running for some time and the water in the bottom is a 'not-so-nice' colour of green; the lawns may have been attended to, however they don't worry about the edges; JV went to ask for a small amount of ice for our bottle of wine and was directed to the service station where he could get a bag.

4 star? - I don't think so!

We were pleased we didn't book any more nights and sad we'd booked 2.

 

[RooFlyer]

Elton John was appearing the following night with his "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" concert at the famous Nimes Amphitheatre

When I went to Nimes last year, especially to check out the Amphitheater etc, it was closed for some coughpy 'Spartacus' show. But I see I have some new places to visit, following your footsteps again.

 

[Gem56]

Nice scenery along the coast between Saint Maximes and Monaco

 

[Gem56]

 

[Gem56]

Monaco

By this stage the heat had increased and there were news items that people were dying from the heat right across Europe, including a 33 yo roof tiler. We are amazed at the amount of people running up the hills, riding bikes, sun baking in the hottest part of the day, even playing boules in the baking sun. The authorities have been telling people to stay out of the heat however the message seems to be slow to reach everyone.

Our accommodation was at the Marriott , which, when you look at the map it is apparently just over the border in France. For all intense purposes though, it's in Monaco right at the Port de Cap-d'Ail. Yay... no shub!

 

[Gem56]

Views from our room

 

[Gem56]

Race day... or is it Show day???

 

[Gem56]

Changing of the Guards at the Palace.

Not nearly as entertaining as it is in Athens, enjoyable to watch just the same.



Views from the Palace grounds