Today's journey took us to Aigues-Mortes, a walled 12c city. While the fortifications were in excellent condition and impressive, the city itself was not, rather disappointing in fact. A lesser Les Beaux. We then headed further toward the water, to Le Grau de Roi, which was a lovely beach town, with commercial fish boats in the harbor. Lunch on the water was easy to find. The town was similar to St. Marie de la Mer, but St. Marie has more charm and character.
The drive in and back was pleasant and scenic through the Carmague, the French marshes which produce sea salt and rice, have beautiful white horses, and very surprisingly pink Flamingoes, that you would expect to see in Florida. On our travels this summer with the GPS - Garmin Nouvi, we have experimented with the announcer- changing voices and accents. Regardless of which voice we use, the pronunciations are all terrible of the difficult French names, it is definitely not the way to learn French as the announcer is using a computer generated program which speaks phonetically, rather than correctly. So, it comes out in odd and funny ways. Think Avignon, with a hard G and you may get some idea. It certainly has us giggling as we drive.
Yesterday, D.'s bread quest took him back to the market at Apt where he saw people standing in line for a peasant-bread (see picture attached) which he purchased. It was big enough to feed a family for a few days so we shared with several friends and our host. Although it was good, it was not the same quality as the Carpentras bread. Yesterday, in the afternoon, we had a wonderful lunch and stayed for a swim at Valruges, a four-star hotel in St. Remy. It is quite charming spot, with a very high-end largely French clientele, and as always, a gourmand lunch.
We are now at the point in our trip where we are no longer sure of time, day or date. D. admits he is now unwound, a significant achievement for this man who works hard year-round until he arrives in Provence. Even the dog is relaxed and is enjoying the food, and the breezes blowing through her hair.
No comments:
Post a Comment