Crêpie Birthday

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Our main reason for meeting our friends, Mike & Linda, in this neck of the woods was for a double birthday celebration. Francine has become very fond of a sunny seafood lunch overlooking our favourite harbour in Marseillan. As it happens, Linda, whose birthday is the day before Francine’s, seemed to find that idea appealing so our plan for this combined jolly was hatched.

IMG_1835_Pancake_tossing Francine has another little plan simmering away in her head. When we move on to Fanjeaux, during our stay their it will be farmer Luc’s 50th. We’ll have missed his fête [party] which was held a week ago when all his family could attend, but Francine fancies making him some English pancakes to compare to French crêpes. Having not made them for many years, she was keen to practice. After all, we can’t have the French thinking that British food is substandard, can we? She’s even come equipped with a non-stick frying pan to practice the all-important tossing of the pancake to cook the second side. Organized or what? Today being Linda’s birthday, Francine practiced on us for breakfast.

There’s been a cloud forming on the horizon for most of the week. First of all, Mike & Linda’s daughter developed an upset intestinal tract. She left on Friday and is now home and better. A few days ago, Mike developed a similar complaint which seemed to be improving. Overnight, however, he suffered a relapse. Part way through this morning, Linda began complaining of what seemed like the beginnings of the same problem.

Eating was not a good idea for either of them and, besides, the sky really is overcast today so lunch in Marseillan harbour has been cancelled. Being under the weather away from home is decidedly worse than in familiar surroundings so they’ve cancelled their last night here and are driving back home.

An unfortunate way to end the week. We feel a little flat but will move on tomorrow and have Francine’s birthday meal with the sheep on the farm at Fanjeaux.

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Local Harbour Craft

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In the local harbours of Marseillan, Mèze and Sète, the attentive wandering tourist may catch sight of some rather curious looking rowing boats. It’s entirely possible that these craft also occur in other harbours further afield but the three towns mentioned, all surrounding the Basin de Thau, mark the limit of our personal experience.

P1010629_Lance These rowing boats are most often seen stored idle with a kind of wooden ladder-like device resting across the top of them, between prow and stern, across the area where rowers would sit in order to row. Just occasionally, however, you might catch a glimpse of the boats with these strange ladder devices deployed as if ready for action. I’d have to say that seeing the ladders installed in this way doesn’t necessarily help to determine the craft’s real purpose. Here are a couple that we snapped, “ladders” at the ready, in Marseillan harbour.

Given that much of the local action revolves around the sea, the fishing and oyster farming industries in particular, I think my first assumption was that these were some kind of peculiar fishing device. I’ve seen more oriental native fishing vessels deploying bright lights to attract fish at night. Could these be related in some way?

No, the truth is much stranger. Imagine the court of King Arthur, dignitaries seated in galleries watching two armour clad knights, each carrying long lances and shields, mounted aboard heavy horses. The knights thunder towards each other astride their steeds attempting to unseat their opponent with the lance. Now, replace the heavy horses with rowing boats, move the knight, complete with his lance but without the heavy armour, up onto the strange ladder device and have the boats row towards each other in the harbour. The lancers attempt to tip each into the drink but do, I believe, attempt to avoid any Arthurian bloodshed.

Now you have it – quite a colourful image. Unfortunately we’ve never actually seen these boats in action but it looks as though we just missed it in Mèze, judging by the grandstand that was erected on the harbour side.

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Vendange

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In the previous post I introduced one of the local wine specialities, Picpoul de Pinet, Picpoul being the grape variety and Pinet being the village carrying the appelation. Along with Mike and Linda, we visited a couple of caves, one a cooperative in Pomérols (not to be confused with the Pomerol of Bordeaux fame) and one, our favourite Picpoul de Pinet producer, in Pinet itself. I normally don’t buy quantities of wine in bottles because the glass adds considerable weight but for Picpoul de Pinet I’m prepared to make an exception; it can be a difficult wine to track down at home. For some odd reason, our car felt considerably heavier and more sluggish on the return trip. 😉

Vendange [the grape harvest], supposedly a very good one this year, is now in full swing. What that means is that you are unlikely to drive down any of the roads, be they side roads or a main roads, in the area without finding your progress impeded by one of the many classic small tractors pulling a trailer laden with freshly harvested bunches of grapes. The tractors are limited to 25kmh but, hey, they’re producing our favourite drink and I’m in no hurry. 🙂

P1010610_Vendange Today we cycled past our favourite Picpoul de Pinet cave once again. Cycling is much the better option ‘cos you can’t carry away any booty and, as you can see from the picture, there isn’t much room remaining on the street for anything else to get by. The place was swarming with tractors delivering trailer-loads of grapes having recently been holding up traffic on their journey from the various vineyards. About half a dozen were lined up across the front of the cave making a sight that rather resembled a Le Mans start for a tractor race – top speed 25kmh, of course.

‘T was a great piece of local colour. The folks selling the wine were also kind enough to replenish our water bottles for the return trip

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Local Harbours

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We are now encamped at St.Martin du Pin where our friends, Mike & Linda, have rented a gîte for this week. We’ve been to this campsite on a few previous occasions but it is now under new ownership so we had been hoping that it wouldn’t have changed too much. Other than one field now being filled with some endearing goats, the main change seems to be that the place has become something of a bébé magnet, or whatever the Dutch for baby might be. The site has always been v. popular with those particular nomadic European neighbours, and they remain by far the most numerous customers (~90% I’d guess) but, for some reason, this year they’ve seen fit to bring three squealing rugrats with them. One can plan to avoid Satan’s Little Disciples by travelling during school term times but pre-school rugrats remain a potential difficulty. At least the adult contingent seems pleasant and peaceful. Maybe the new owners are advertising in Mothercare magazine, or something. 😀

P1010600_Meze_harbour Anyway, our main reasons for returning regularly to this area are the weather together with a couple of picturesque local harbours at Mèze and Marseillan. Both are pleasant places to sit with a beer while watching the world go by. This is exactly what we tried to do at Mèze having cycled to the town from the campsite. We picked a harbour-side table at a harbour-side bar and sat down waiting to order deux pressions [two draught beers]. Shortly afterwards and, mercifully, before anyone had come to our table to take our order, a delivery van screeched to a halt 6ft/2m in front of us thus comprehensively obscuring our view of said world passing by. Not wishing to pay bar prices for a view of the side of a van, we left and cycled back.

P1010627_Marseillan_harbour The other thing these harbours excel in is selling platters of the locally caught/produced coquillages [shellfish], especially oysters. Neither of these harbours opens directly onto the Mediterranean but rather on the Basin de Thau which is home to a very large oyster farming industry. Marseillan harbour is by far our favourite, being particularly attractive and relatively calm, mostly. Happily, our attempt to sample the seafood their after yet another bicycle trip, was considerably more successful and we managed to part with a little of our tourist cash without the view being spoiled – and very good our lunches were, too. Naturally, being aboard bicycles rather than driving, we thought it was de rigeur to wash down our seafood with a bottle of the local dry white wine speciality, Picpoul de Pinet.

Salut!

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Provence Summary

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We moved on from Provence to Montagnac in the Hérault today. Here, we are meeting up with friends Mike & Linda and hoping to celebrate a double birthday in Francine’s favourite birthday lunch spot, Marseillan harbour. It’s a double birthday because Linda’s is the day before Francine’s. In parting, here’s a swift summary of how kind Provence has been to us.

We’ve had six days of this, Franco’s favourite colour:

P1010583_Favourite_sky

In those six days of pretty much unbroken clear blue skies, we’ve braved the heat and managed to hunt down the following entirely new delightful Odonata to add to our growing collection: the Spotted Darter (Sympetrum depressiusculum); the utterly captivating Copper Demoiselle (Calopteryx haemorrhoidalis) and the Southern Skimmer (Orthetrum brunneum).

IMG_1587_Spotted_Darter_male IMG_1668_Copper_Demoiselle_male IMG_1798_Southern_Skimmer_male

Oh, and sometimes you don’t have to go hunting. This also new character, a Lesser Emperor Dragonfly (Anax parthenope) helpfully came and landed on the hedge surrounding our pitch on the campsite:

IMG_2870_Lesser_Emperor

Added to the two new species we spotted in La Brenne, I’d say six new species amounted to a good good trip so far.

Now, time to do something a little different, including, we hope, some cycling to counteract the celebrations. 😀

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Étang des Aulnes

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For our last day in Les Alpilles we thought we’d call into another noted wildlife habitat and Odonata spotting spot in these parts called the Étang des Aulnes. It’s a Sunday and, being a fishermans’ hang out, I was rather afraid it would be busy with French fishermen avoiding the French equivalent of ‘er indoors, rather as fishermen do in the UK. My fears were unfounded; there was but one other car in the car park and nobody from it was in evidence. We had the place to ourselves.

P1010584_Etang_des_Aulnes P1010589_Etang_des_Aulnes The main étang is pretty big, nothing even approaching the Étang de Vaccarès in that you can see the other side of it, but big nonetheless. Much better for Odo-spotting are smaller bodies of water. This area came with a series of three small, straight (clearly man-made) “finger-lakes” which is where we concentrated our efforts.

IMG_1798_Southern_Skimmer_male Most of what we saw were the now familiar usual suspects in these parts … until we focussed on what I first assumed to be a Black-tailed Skimmer (Orthetrum cancellatum). It didn’t look quite right, though, in that the abdomen appeared to have gone pruinose, a feature I didn’t think I’d seen before. Looking at the photos later, I noticed that the eyes and frons are also blue-ish. Enter our sixth new species: a suspected Southern Skimmer (Orthetrum brunneum). (I say suspected because, never having seen one before, I need more expert confirmation.) The book shows no black tip to the tail but I’m pretty sure this is just down to wear and tear after a hard season’s reproduction together with territorial disputes.

Whose a happy camper, then? 🙂

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Pay the Ferryman

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One really shouldn’t visit this area without getting a feel for the Camargue itself and to see some of the things for which it is noted.

P1010561_VaccaresP1010564_FlamingosThe Camargue is a large wetland formed by the complex and widespread delta of the river Rhône. The largest water body within the area, sandwiched between the Petit Rhone to the west and the Grand Rhône to the east, is the Étang de Vaccarès where we began our search for one of the Camargue’s more colourful inhabitants, flamingos. This lake is large (6,500 hectares) and is apparently the winter home to 80,000 ducks and 60,000 coots – but no flamingos, it seemed. We eventually found the elusive pinkish critters in the smaller Étang du Fournelet. Distant though they are, here’s a spot of photographic evidence.

P1010573_Camargue_rice There’s a lot of rice grown in the Camargue which must form good natural rice paddies. Camargue red rice is well known to those of us with a culinary leaning. We’ve bumped into rice harvest time and were intrigued to see it growing but it took us a while to find a field of the stuff growing and which provided anything like decent photographic access. Hmm, pink flamingos, red rice – I’m beginning to see a pattern emerging. 🙂

P1010572_Bac_de_Barcarin Our plan was to finish our day with a visit to the Marais de Vigueirat, a wildlife sanctuary including, of course, Odos. Since we were now on the wrong side of the Grand Rhône, we opted for a short ferry crossing on the Bac de Bacarin, very efficient, good fun. Paying the French ferryman the €5 for the crossing caused a laugh as I had to call Francine back for the cash; he reacted to that with suitable amusement.

P1010576_Camargue_horses Enjoyable ferry ride over we arrived at the wildlife sanctuary where the reception was, of course, closed for lunch until 2:30 PM. How very French. Nonetheless, we seemed to be able to get in and wander around the public access paths (there are also private areas) to our hearts’ content. Our hearts’ content soon expired as we found no shortage of one the Camargue’s other famous inhabitants, the mosquito. Francine felt she was being eaten alive and we soon tired of spotting dragonflies which, as it turned out, didn’t seem that exciting after all. The Marais de Vigueirat would be very interesting, I’m sure, if you could pause long enough to study it with out getting bitten. The golden rule, however, seemed to be: keep walking briskly to provide the mosquitoes a more difficult moving target. We did, at least, have an opportunity to grab a few swift shots of another of the Camargue’s celebrities, the white horses.

As an Odonata nutter, I would not bother with the Marais de Vigueirat again, even if I’d had a bath in Autan (mosquito repellent); it was quite a relief to get out of it. The rest of the day was fun, though.

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Peau de Meau

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There are many so-called flat areas in the world. In the UK, the county of Norfolk is generally, somewhat disparagingly referred to as being flat: “Oh, Norfolk, yes, it’s terribly flat”. From an alcohol-dulled memory, I seem to recall that the highest point in Norfolk is about 365ft/110mtrs above sea level. The whole of the Netherlands is called flat and it may well be, until you climb aboard a bicycle.

Just south of us and on the east side of the Camargue is an area called La Plaine de la Crau (we suspect, pronounced “crow”). The main town, the gateway to la Crau, is St-Martin-de-Crau. There are many sites of interest to naturalists in la Crau including one called the Peau de Meau requires which is a noted site for birders but also for Odo-nutters. Whilst most areas of la Crau are freely accessible, the Peau de Meau requires a permit (€3 each per day at the time of writing), obtainable from the Ecomusée de la Crau at the western end of the main street in St-Martin-de-Crau. I know it’s at the west end now but, of course, we parked at the east end to begin our search for our permits.  No matter, it’s a pleasant-looking town. Permits in hand – well, more accurately, Francine’s handbag – we set off the 10kms/6mls or so in search of the highly regarded Peau de Meau.

P1010534_Peau_de_Meau P1010536_Peau_de_Meau We found it and it’s definitely not what I expected. I don’t know exactly what I expected but an ironing-board flat stony desert landscape wasn’t it. This is flat; Norfolk and the Netherlands are positively mountainous by comparison. Here are two views looking in almost opposite directions to show you what we’re talking about.

Neither does it immediately look like a stunning place for wildlife. We pulled into the car park, where there was nobody to care whether we had a permit or not, and began to stare around. Soon, Francine began spotting flitting Odos, all of which seemed to having some difficulty either flying or hanging onto perches in the strong wind that was whipping across the plain completely unobstructed.

The car park is immediately across a small but fast flowing stream/river on the northern side of the Peau de Meau. We did set off on the supposedly 2hrs walk along a stony track around the Peau de Meau but, as you can see from the pictures, life wasn’t going to change much so we soon returned to the most likely Odo habitat, the stream, and I’m very glad we did. Incidentally, given the flat landscape, we’re very confused about how the river managed to flow quite so swiftly. Curious!

IMG_1658_Copper_Demoiselle_male IMG_1675_Copper_Demoiselle_female The first thing we spotted over the stream itself was a Copper Demoiselle (Calopteryx hæmorrhoidalis). What a catch, our fourth completely new species and what a stunningly attractive creature the male is. The female is interesting, too, in that she has a darker see-through patch at the tip of one of her pairs of wings. Fortunately I was wearing my Salomon river-guide shoes and was able to clamber into the stream itself to get some reasonably close shots. These Calopteryx chaps and chapesses do tend to make photography difficult by sitting on the sunny side of rivers right over the water.

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Roman Relics

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The Romans knew a thing or two about living in a decent climate. All teh more surprising, therefore, that they eventually chose to cross the Channel and invade the British Isles. There were benefits, however; it is because the Romans were stupid enough to invade a country with a climate as crappy as Britain that we have central heating. Every cloud, etc. … and there is certainly no shortage of clouds in the British Isles.

In these parts, around Arles and Nîmes, there are several notable Roman architectural relics. one of the most famous is the Pont du Gard, an impressive three-tiered Roman aqueduct that carried fresh water into Roman Nîmes, where there is an equally impressive Roman arena similar the Colosseum in Rome.

P1010543_Roman_aqueduct Scattered here in and around les Alpilles  are more Roman relics, perhaps not as grand as those more famous relics aforementioned but quite impressive nonetheless. A little south of us is a another Roman aqueduct, much less imposing than the Pont du Gard but it served a similar life-giving purpose to someone in these arid parts 2000 years ago. It’s in the middle of nowhere, really, and there’s nowhere to park so we had to leave our car with fashionable abandon at a very rakish angle on a road verge nearby.

P1010555_Triumphal_arch P1010558_Mausoleum Slightly to the north of us on the outskirts of the well-known tourist trap of St-Remy-de-Provence, lies the Roman settlement of Glanum where there is another more money-spinning archaeological site. Here, there is parking and plenty of it at €2.50. beside the car park are two quite impressive Roman relics: a triumphal arch (triumphant of what, I’m not entirely sure) and a mausoleum.

Having shelled out your €2.50 to park, across the road there is the archaeological site of Glanum itself, at a further €7.00 each to get in. Knowing us, you’ll just have to be satisfied with the triumphal arch and the mausoleum on the outside and be glad that we paid the parking fee. 😀

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Aux Alpilles

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This morning we hitched up early and headed for our next port of call, Les Alpilles. Les Alpilles, themselves a parc naturel régional, are an attractive series of rocky hills in the middle of an otherwise flat plain just north-east of the Camargue national park. We’re here for the wetlands around the Camargue. This area is definitely an Odo-nutter destination, if one can find the dragonflies in between all the mosquitoes for which the Camargue is famous. 😀

Our first decision was where to stay. We’d previously visited a pleasant, rural campsite near Mouriès. It was in a typically Provencal setting of arid scrubland and seemed to be run by the Gestapo, which is a good thing; you don’t any more thoughtless campers being given the freedom to spoil your own peace and quiet. However, a couple of kilometres west lies Maussane-les-Alpilles with a seemingly highly regarded camping municipal. It, of course, is more of a town site. We vacillated but eventually plumped for rural scrubland and the Gestapo – much more us.

We timed our departure so that the three hour drive would get us in just before lunchtime (12 noon). The French don’t care to have their lunch two-hours disturbed and often close receptions at noon for a couple of hours. We pulled into Mouriès at 11:30 AM and swung off the main road into the side road leading to Stalag 99, passing, as we did so, a camping sign appended with “fermé” [closed]. Bugger, it’s supposed to be open until September 15th!

The Gestapo clearly got fed up with tourists. I did a nifty three point turn with Guillaume still hitched and we headed for the site in Maussane-les-Alpilles after all.

Maybe it’s Provence but this site seems to be run by the same branch of the forces. An extract from the site rules:

NOISE: do not bother your neighbours with the sound of televisions or radios, with loud voices or musical instruments and this EVEN DURING THE DAY.

(Their phraseology, not mine.) Excellent! What with this and the free wifi, it makes the higher than usual (for us) charges something of a pleasure. This is how all sites should be run.

Now, if they could just take a leaf out of the book at the étang de Bellbouche where dogs aren’t permitted …

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