Day 7 - St-Remy to Meze

You know that you must be on holiday when you have lost track of what day it is huh? Then we must have definitely made it into the holiday zone as none of us could figure out what day it was today until a good bit of thought was put into the matter (we think it’s Tuesday).

After checkout this morning we drove into Saint-Remy for a good poke around. A perfectly gorgeous French village straight out of our imagination. There is a ring road that circles the town centre and within that is a maze of little one way and pedestrian only streets with tourist and regular shops all mixed up in old, old buildings. Christine found a bag on swivel wheels to replace her wrecked suitcase. This one will be able to turn sideways to go through the ticket gate, so no more desperate tugging will be required (tee hee).

We visited a boulanger (bakery) and boucher/charcuterie (butchery/deli) to stock up on picnic supplies for our lunch and found that butchers in France are just as cheeky as the ones in NZ – even when they don’t speak much English lol. Al was stopped by a guy who was pretty impressed with his tattoos and lifted his shirt to display his very decorated belly and chest. We are hoping that his was just to put his interest into context, and not because he was a regular flasher.

St-Remy was so delightful that it was hard to leave, but with more adventuring awaiting, we headed for Arles. When we got there, we found that it was quite a big bustling place and decided that we didn’t feel like the hassle of parking and crowds. So we drove around a bit just to check that there was nothing obvious that was a must-do and when we had had a bit of a tiki-tour we headed out of town again on our way to the Camargue and Saintes Marie de la Mer.

I was really excited about this and really had my fingers crossed that we would see the horses, bulls and wild flamingos. We are here outside mating season, so there was a chance that wouldn’t actually see any flamingos. As we got close to Saintes Marie, we started seeing the white horses – Nat you would go bonkers! They are just roaming about the countryside like we have cows and look incredible in herds. So, tick number one. Next, we started to see paddocks of black bulls – looking exactly like the ones that come as plastic toys on Spanish bottles of wine. The sad thing is that they do actually have a strong tradition of bull-fighting here, but they look blissfully unaware in the fields. Tick number two. Just as I was becoming despondent, I caught a glimpse of something pink and spindly in the lake just ahead and Hooray! Pink flamingos! It was soooo exciting! We stopped and took photos but they were quite a way away so hard to see the detail. None-the-less, tick three and I was happy.

However, what a treat to discover up the road on the out-skirts of Saintes Marie a group of 4 in a lake just beside the road -big, big tick!

We stopped for the final supplies that we needed for lunch, then tootled down to the promenade for a picnic by the beach. It was very windy, but at least had sand rather than the stones of the beaches on the French Riviera.

After lunch we wandered through the local market and then climbed the tower steps of the bell tower to get an amazing panorama of the Camargue. It was a very steep narrow climb, but well worth doing. You end up actually sitting on the roof of the church and it was another of the many, many times that we have thought to ourselves that “this would never be allowed in NZ”. OSH just doesn’t seem to be considered here anywhere – meaning you have the opportunity to do some really cool stuff which hasn’t been regulated out of bounds.

We have now arrived in Meze, having driven past the biggest shellfish farm I could ever imagine seeing – it fills the eastern side of the lagoon – think all of Lyttelton harbour with mussel pontoons! This area has a reputation as the French seafood capital, so we will be definitely sampling and comparing to our Marlborough versions. Will let you know!

P.S. Bonne anniversaire Barry for yesterday!  We'll have a wee kir (Christine and my new favourite tipple) in celebration - xx from Chrissie.