Nimes, Arles, Camargue, ... (We're late on our posts)
Hello guys and gals,
Last time you left us, we were taking a bit of time to rest and to catch up on everything. Today we're sort of doing the same because the weather is meh.
After spending the night in a camping and washing our clothes and ourselves, in Laudun L'Ardoise, we decided to go visit that little town, it was the site of the Camp of Cesar. It's an antique town covering 18sqkm. It was occupied from the 5 th Century BC and contains quite a lot of remains of old buildings and ancient structures. Additionally the view of the valley of the Rhone from there is pretty great.
We stayed there a bit and then headed to see the Pont Du Gard. A world renowned roman aqueduct built in 40/60 AD that was part of the structures the romans built to provide running water to the city of Nimes. It's one of the best preserved aqueducts in the world and it's sight is very impressive. It was somewhat of a childhood dream to see it. I'm glad I managed to check that one out. We had a beer at the foot of the bridge and enjoyed the site while try to coax sparrows to eat in our palms.
We stayed there a bit and then headed to see the Pont Du Gard. A world renowned roman aqueduct built in 40/60 AD that was part of the structures the romans built to provide running water to the city of Nimes. It's one of the best preserved aqueducts in the world and it's sight is very impressive. It was somewhat of a childhood dream to see it. I'm glad I managed to check that one out. We had a beer at the foot of the bridge and enjoyed the site while try to coax sparrows to eat in our palms.
After the visit, we headed to our campsite, an orientation table on a hill overlooking the old city of Uzes, the spot was absolutely fantastic (despite the 2km of dirt track to get there... hm.)
The next day we woke up with the intetnion of visiting Uzes and Nimes. It was Saturday, which means it was market day in Uzes, the market was as all typical french markets, quaint, beautiful and busy as hell. We bought some bread, and some lavender scented soap (when in Provence...), walked tiny streets full of goods and Aliona, of course, had to cuddle a husky dog that crossed our path. We then headed towards Nimes. We walked around Nimes for a while, it's an interesting city where a lot of different periods overlap in terms of architecture. We started our visit around the Arenes of Nimes then walked through the city towards la Maison Carree and then towards the park where the 1st century temple of Diane still sort of stands.
After a whole afternoon of wandering we were tired and headed to find a camping spot. As always with cities it's difficult to find quiet areas within the city walls so we headed out of the town towards the Park national des Alpilles (after eliminating a spot we had find because it looked dodgy af.) We did drive through Tarascon but didn't get to see Tartarin, damn shame. There we found a flat area around a Lake just north of the Baux de Provence. There were other people so we thought, why not drive around the lake and see if there is another area on the other side. There was. We stopped there, took the camping chairs out and opened a beer. There was a small bank behind us so I decided to go and see what was there. And there it was in all it's beauty, a sewage treatment plant. Awesome. So we went back to the other side of the lake (since the smell was definitely present) and parked away from the people and had a really good night.
The next day we realised that we were going a bit slow on our trip and that we needed to speed up a bit if were to hold our schedule. In that spirit, we decided to do Arles in the morning/noon and then head to the Ste Marie de la Mer to check out Camargue and sleep somewhere around there.
As we drove to Arles, we saw on the side of the road a building that looked fairly ominous and decided to go see what it was, it was the Abbaye of Montmajour which had been immortalised by Vincent Van Gogh.
Arles was very nice, a lot more character than Nimes, still a lot of diverse history with the amphitheater and the arenes but much smaller of a city, narrow streets and windy roads. It was great. Arles was a truly inspirational and beautiful city overflowing with arts and culture and now we understand why Van Gogh was so in love with it.
Arles was very nice, a lot more character than Nimes, still a lot of diverse history with the amphitheater and the arenes but much smaller of a city, narrow streets and windy roads. It was great. Arles was a truly inspirational and beautiful city overflowing with arts and culture and now we understand why Van Gogh was so in love with it.
We then took the road towards Camargue, the change of scenery is astonishing from Arles to Camargue, the buildings are different the soil is different the vegetation is different, it's like stepping into another country. We drove into the Ste Marie de la Mer, they're not huge fans of camping cars/campervans there.... It had now been 3 odd days since our last shower and we thought, since it's a seaside city, they must have showers on the shore. We grabbed our towels and flip flops and headed to the shore. it wasn't like, cold cold but it wasn't excessively hot. Anyway, I ended up showering on the beach like a hobo and Aliona didn't... t-t-t-t.
We decided against spending the night on the parking spot we were at because it was in the city and it had a huge "no habitable vehicles allowed" sign... We took the direction of a site that was 4 or 5 km down a dirt track and just on the edge of the Etang de Monro. It was quiet, full of birds (and a few mosquitoes). We ate outside that night and enjoyed the sunset and the flights of the flamingoes. Later during the night, we had a clear night sky with 0 light pollution. There was no guessing where the milky way was.
We decided against spending the night on the parking spot we were at because it was in the city and it had a huge "no habitable vehicles allowed" sign... We took the direction of a site that was 4 or 5 km down a dirt track and just on the edge of the Etang de Monro. It was quiet, full of birds (and a few mosquitoes). We ate outside that night and enjoyed the sunset and the flights of the flamingoes. Later during the night, we had a clear night sky with 0 light pollution. There was no guessing where the milky way was.
We woke up the next morning to another beautiful sight of camargue, had breakfast and took the road towards Luberon. It was a rather long drive (2h30) so we decided to just drive there and rest a bit and maybe fire up the solar shower. We found a spot some 15 min away from the Colorado Provencal. Unfortunately for us, the sun was not keen to show its face so the solar shower remained cold the whole time... We spent a great quiet night and were full of energy for the hike planned for the next day.
The plan for today is wake up at 8h, get a nice filling breakfast, hike for 4h, and then drive to the Gorges du Verdon to spend the night in a camping, wash our stinky clothes and have an actually warm shower. And that's exactly what we did. The hike through the Provencal Colorado was incredible, it takes you through lavender fields and forest. You're walking through the forest and all of a sudden you see cliffs of red and yellow and white stone.
After a well deserved lunch, we hit the road towards the Parc National des Gorges du Verdon to St Andre les Alpes. It's apparently a famous paragliding spot. Nothing too eventful there, we spent the night, washed everything we owned and emptied every tank and went on our way the next morning.
Ciao
Guillaume & Aliona
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