Market day

1.09.18
Off to Sommiere Saturday market at the crack of 10am, oops, when we meant to get up early specifically. We did manage to get a parking place though, just.

This gorgeous old town of little alleyways,  lacy rusting iron balconies and fading wooden shutters is bustling on a Saturday morning with a popular market. Bric a brac, clothes, jewellery and food stalls full of interesting stuff under bunting-strung streets. Of course we over indulged ourselves buying wonderful produce : cheeses of varying strength, salami style sausage (poivre and tomato), crusty pain de campagne, green beans, huge peaches, rosy pears, eggs laid yesterday. What a feast for later! Except we succumbed to lunch beside the river: smoked herring and potato salad, chicken drumsticks with pasta and cheese sauce followed by proper French apple tart. Oh dear, full up again!

The atmosphere was buzzing, a saxophonist busker playing a lazy mellow jazz completed the picture. And by 2 it was all being packed away and the streets swept and tidied, the town going back to it's sleepier self apart from the tractors hacking through with their trailers overflowing with grapes! They were courteous enough to stop at the crossing from restaurant to river front for our waitresses to convey their food; cauldrons of moules and plates of fish. Love it. We might have to come back next Saturday our last day, to stock up for home.

Back to the gite and a swim to try and work off some of that lunch! Great day.

Water jousting

31.08.18
40 minutes drive and we got to Sete, on the coast, but an island amongst canals and the link to the Canal du Midi through the Etang du Tau, another trip we will be doing one day. We identified the Port du Plaisance where we could moor but saw no boats our size - they all seemed enormous!

The inner canals have extremely low bridges, so only small motorboats are moored and travel along them. However, the water jousting festival was underway - a surprise to us and we enjoyed the entertainment of this daft sport, that apparently dates back to 1177.  We watched the very young contestants determinedly lancing their rivals and the triumph when they managed to unbalance them into the water. Some that just stumbled and collapsed in their position on the 'ladder' at the back of the boat were extremely upset. The ones that went in just accepting, either being dragged into the support boats or casually swimming to the pontoon to get out and dry off. Good fun, the players in suitable white trousers and striped blue and white tops and the boats very jolly.

We walked all around the water: the Lateral Canal which leads out to the Etang du Tau. Once again it was baking hot and we were glad to finally relax in a restaurant, although we made the mistake of choosing one on a busy canalside street of many, all fish restaurants and the food was not great, sea bass aside. We will know next time to go further into the centre Ville.

Street parking  has to be paid for but we were pleasantly surprised to see that it is free between 12 and  2 - very civilised for people to have their lunch.

Aigues Mortes and Grau du Roi

29.08.18
Off to revisit other places I have enjoyed before. The Carmargue with  its wild horses, bulls and flamingoes is a place apart - it has a different feel to other parts of France and is unspoiled.

Aigues Mortes, the walled ancient city is a tourist attraction but still fascinating. It's narrow streets largely pedestrian only, are flanked with pretty houses, shops, bars and restaurants. It's centre square heaving with restaurants all al fresco under large sunshades. Plenty of eating choices here and lots of Carmargue beef (toureau) or 'gardien' beef. I couldn't help but have a memory of my Dad here not long before he died when the 3 of us came for a holiday, choosing to let my Mum and I wander the shops whilst he rested in a restaurant and had a crepe for his lunch before we took a boat trip and watched the majestic gardien on their horses rounding up the bulls. My parents had been coming here for years and it was them who introduced me to the area in my teens.

We went outside the walls to explore the waterways : the Rhone and Sete canal where plenty of pleasure boats were moored along with the trip boats. Another must of a stop identified for our future travels by boat. All along the coast from here are the salt flats where the water is pink (from the sea creatures I think). Sometimes flamingoes can be seen wading but we didn't see any this time. Carmargue salt is thought to be the best and very pure. Being true tourists, we bought some of course.

We went on to the beach at Grau du Roi - not a touristy place with little to remark about it and still as I remember it - a fishing port with  huge boats coming and going. A swim here in the Med - although it took a long walk out for it to become deep enough.

Pont du Gard - what have the Romans ever done for us?

28.08.18
Another amazing feat of Roman building is Pont du Gard aqueduct which was built to carry water from the source of the Uzes river to  Nimes.
Another blazingly hot day and I welcomed a swim in the cool river. I came here in my 20s and then you didn't have to pay to get on to the bridge - now it is one large museum. There were a lot of people enjoying the amenities as well as viewing the bridge and learning about it. Some daring young people were tombstoning from rocks into deeper parts of the flow, many were kayaking and plenty swimming from the little bays all along the banks. It is a magnificent sight and the river is clean and inviting.

Nimes

27.08.18
After a day getting used to our new home and getting in the food we wanted, we visited Nimes and it's fantastic amphitheatre. My knees and Pete's non head for heights prevented us from climbing to the very top to look out over this old city but we got close and got a feel for the amazing feat of construction managed by the Romans in 5AD! Everyone on any terrace would have had a perfect view of the brutal fights that went on in it's vast oval arena. I learned that arena means sand in Latin the name merely refers to the ground covering and not as I had always thought to a circular or similar shape. The Romans were truly a blood thirsty lot and the spectacles of gladiator fights, bear and lion confrontations became more and more viscous until the Christian community and some more humane members of the higher classes called a slow down to it all. The theatre was taken over as a fortress during wartime and now seems to be used as a music venue.

It was blisteringly hot to be walking a city, so we found a restaurant in a square where we had lunch. Pete had his first taste of Carmargue beef - it got the thumbs up. Me, paella, which was a mistake.

Nimes is a busy bustling  city with ancient Roman architecture and beautifully dressed ladies.

On to more permanent living

25.08.18
Our last night of moving around was in Tournon sur Rhone. The town lies on both sides of the river with a pedestrian bridge to connect the two, steep vineyards with their names on billboards backed the streets. We didn't explore very far as we were not here for long but the river frontage along from our hotel had been newly developed with pontoons. We have read that there are few mooring places along the Rhone, so it was good to identify this one at least. It was backed by a plane tree edged square which looked likely for a market on certain days. At the back of the square were several bars and restaurants. We had our evening drink on a barge. This establishment appeared to be run by a very young couple and it was difficult to establish just what they were offering; cakes, pastries and alcohol it seemed. An enormous hotel boat passed by, we will be dwarfed this end of the Rhone for sure!
We intended to have a light dinner as we are overdone with restaurant food. We found a tiny restaurant the back of which was cut into the steep rock that runs behind here and that forms the base of it's castle. We had 'ravioles' - the restaurants speciality, which were tiny green ravioli parcels of cheese and parsley in a cheese sauce, mine; goats cheese, Pete's; Roquefort. Delicious, but so much for the light dinner! Of course a bottle of cote du Rhone had to accompany it.

25.08.18
Saturday and on to Nimes where we have a gite for 2 weeks. An easy motorway drive despite a few hold-ups which we were warned would be the case as this is the last weekend of French holidays.

Our gite is in a quiet suburb and quite rural. We were met by hostess and neighbour, Lou who showed us around this quirky little 'barn'. We have our own pool which is luxury. Lou is an artist and her paintings adorn the walls. Everything is shabby chic and slightly scruffy, which suits us. Her dog, Yagi comes to visit and positively moaned at me when I didn't give him dinner scraps. He is gentle and friendly though and well trained not to go for your food so we will welcome him despite not being lovers of dogs particularly. The garden is wild with fig trees, olive trees and firs and all the windows are leafy.
The temperature has dropped from a sticky 32 to 27 degrees with a cool wind and clouds. It is forecast to crank up again tomorrow.
A light dinner at home tonight.

Auxerre

18.08.18

We arrive in Auxerre on l'Yonne. A stunning old town with timbered buildings tumbling down a steep hill to the river which is bustling. Many boats here and we chatted to an Englishman sitting on the back deck of a Stevens just like ours. He has shares in it and this was his first trip. Their mooring is with Aquarelle and we asked the manager about winter mooring here. It would be a suitable place to leave our boat as from here there are several waterways to explore, canals Nivernais and Bourgogne and the river Yonne, and Auxerre is easy to get to by car or train. Tariffs  were a little higher than we had hoped but that's mainly because we want the best protection for her.
Boats were nose to tail along this stretch of water and this was the first time we saw people moving around mooring for the evening to enjoy the town. A barge, Grizzled Skipper was moored here - we have seen this on our travels on the Thames.
We had a beer in a busy square and researched a few restaurants around it to investigate later, but once again, the one with the best review - an old hotel - was closed down. The most thriving (as it was the only one) was a bit of a fast food establishment. Luckily, as we were early we managed to get a table at a hidden brasserie tucked at the back of a courtyard, Poivre et Sel, where the food was more authentic French. We lucked out for sure.

Auxerre cathedral - beautiful (wish we had heard this harpist playing, he seemed to be resting)