Yesterday required some domestic duties but fortunately the automatic laverie and the Europcar Office were close to each other. Our car this time is a small bright red Fiat and apart from needing help to find the electric window openers we settled in and set off to meet Maria, Roland, their son Erich and grandson Fin. They are staying at a small hotel forty minutes away. This is the sea side town of Saintes-Maries- De-La-Mar. Yes the sss's are all in the title but the end ones are not pronounced.
We arrived in time for lunch and Bob had his first crepe.
We then set off for a trip to the delta of the Rhone in Roland's 4 WD Nissan. The delta is huge being about 50 kms wide and 40 kms deep. It has been farmed and grazed since the value of the deposited silt was appreciated. It is managed by a series of sea dykes and drainage channels which make navigation tricky if you have a destination in mind. This is horse stud and bull breeding territory and we saw lots of those. But it is also home to lots of water birds. Roland wanted to take us out to a beach where you can drive to the sand but first we had to go west from the town around a large National Park. It was a complicated navigational task even with Google maps but we did find the place much to Roland's satisfaction. Along the way we saw flocks of Flamingos which winter here. Roland was on strict instruction to stop for photos which he did. They are sensible birds though and stayed out of camera range for the most part.
The beach is not up to Aussie standards but people were camped out there. The waves have been non existant for the past few days much to Erich's disgust as he is a keen surfer. The rain also made the dirt road very muddy and slippery in parts so it was a bit like outback 4WDriving. Roland was in his element.
We had dinner with the Scheideggers and both Bob and I selected paella to taste the local speciality. It revised my opinion of the dish as it was good. The population here are largely Catalan which is probably a left over from when boundaries were more flexible. The Church built during the 9th, 10th & 11th Centuries had a definate Moorish influence and was beautiful. The stone is pale compared to grey stone elsewhere. It was so big that I couldn't stand anywhere in the square to fit it all in the photo.
Our trip home was uneventful and after going once around the block we found our way into the huge multistory car park and entered with the 48 hour ticket we purchased from the hotel.
After the walk up to the hotel it was no difficulty to sleep.
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