Where to Next?: Some Like It Hot!

Let me just start by saying that today it was 39℃ - in the shade.

It was also the first day that we had a full day of bus touring planned. Our tour consisted of a trip to the seaside town of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer - The Saint Marys of the sea - the Mediterranean Sea, to be exact, so you'd think that would be nice on a hot day..... you'd think.

They said we could take our bathers so we could go for a swim in the Mediterranean and that we'd have plenty of time, but we were either running late or somebody lied because we got off the bus and were told we had 30 minutes to look around..... lucky we had no intention of taking our bathers!

So just enough time to race down and have a look at the water, look at the church, look around at the shops and get going!

It was a tourist shopper's paradise with limited shade.....

and limited toilet facilities.

It's famous for being the place that Mary Magdaline, Mary of Bethany (who was the sister of Lazerus) and Mary (the mother of James) arrived there by sea with some other disciples after they witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus and were also the first to see that Jesus wasn't in the tomb. They were forced to leave the holy land and live out their days in a tacky seaside town full of souvenir shops.

The upper chapel contains the relics of the other two, lessor known Marys

And Mary Mags is buried in the crypt below.

Its not as dog friendly here as it has been in other places.

So back we all pile - 4 bus loads of hot people onto the haven of the air-conditioned buses headed for our second destination of the day - Parc Naturel Règional de Camargue. It is about 85,000 hectare of protected open space and the adjoining Parc Ornithologique - A wetland, wildlife sanctuary which is home to, among other birds and animals - the pink flamingo!

Here are some baby storks

⬇

Whose knees do these remind me of?

Below are just a small selection of the huge variety of birds and fish in the parc. The fish you can see in the water there was a carp. There were hundreds of them all swimming like that with their back out of the water.

One woman was standing behind me saying in her bogan gravely voice, "They're eels. They're eels." to anyone who would listen. She said it about 6-7 times so I couldn't help myself and said.... "what are they?"

"They're eels." she barked back at me.

"Are they? They're eels you say?"

"Yeah, they're eels."

I suggested, "I think they're a type of fish. Don't you think they look like fish?"

"They're eels." she said and turned away from me.

Just then a guide walked past with her group saying, "they fish you can see in the water are carp."

I looked at the bogan lady and she just walked off as I smiled at my triumph. Sometimes it's the little things that make you happy.

Then.... the pièce de rèsistance - the pink flamingoes.

Flamingoes often stand on one leg with the other leg rucked underneath their body. The reason for this behaviour is not fully understood. Recent research indicates that standing one one leg may allow the birds to conserve more body heat given that they spend a significant amount of time wading in cold water.

You know how I mentioned that it was 39℃ - in the shade.... well the Parc Ornithologique it was at least 45℃! I don't know what made it hotter there, but it was and people were fading very quickly. I don' know if this is a common fact, amongst people who know me, but I do not handle the heat well. I have no ability to cool myself and I have no constitution to cope with it. I don't know why that is. I grew up in a place that can reach temps up into their 40s and I, for reasons unknown to me, often go to places during the height of their summer seasons. (i.e: last year my friend, Lu and I walked around Rome in 42℃ and then, the next week, on the Mediterranean Maddfest, Madds, Robbo, Lu and I haplessly followed a guide through the marble city of Ephesus, in Turkey in soaring temperatures of about 54℃ (that's what it felt like to me!)

We'd been given an hour to wander at our leisure through the Parc, but after about 30 minutes we were all seeking the shade of trees and desperately vying for spots where there might be a tiny bit of breeze - no matter how hot.

If I were a flamingo - I would have put both legs in the water today!

So, back to the bus, where our driver had thankfully already started the aircon, so there was some relief.

Our next stop was lunch at a Camargue farm to eat some Camargue bull - a common local fare around these parts.

The Camargue bulls are rounded up by some old fashioned Camargue Cowboys who wear colourful shirts and cowboy hats. This wasn't something that I was expecting the south of France!

The cowboys bring in the 'haunch' of bull meat on this big skewer and then parade it around the barn above their heads to some music.

Apparently our very own Manu - of "My Restaurant Rules" fame was currently filming in France and he was due at this farm - today - while we were there. I don't know why I was excited about this, because there has been plenty of opportunities to see Manu in the flesh in Melbourne that I didn't take - on purpose, but when Madam Bon, the lady of the house said she might have a surprise for us today...... I was super excited, then suitably disappointed when he didn't show up. I can guess why - because it was HOT! Too hot for cooking, too hot for filming. Too hot for eating. Just too hot.

So this is where we ate our lunch, in these hot, airless barn - are you sensing a theme to this blog post? We did have a very nice lunch and the bull meat tasted a lot like cow meat, but a big gamier.

The Camargue horses are believed to have descended from the prehistoric horses, which lived during the Palaeolithic period i.e. around 17,000 years ago. Camargue are small horses that are born grey/black or brown and turn white after about 5 years. They are very popular for their intelligence and agility and are extensively used for games and long distance riding. They look like they are running wild and free in the wild, but all Camargue horses are owned by somebody.

You probably recognise them more in this formation.

Also roaming around the fields amongst the horses are the black Camargue bulls with their large horns and suspicious eyes.

Little did this chap know that we'd be eating one of his hind legs in a minute!

The day had been long, but nowhere near finished..... We now had the choice to either go back to the comfort and air conditioning of the ship or we could continue on to the next town of Arles..... as we'd been sitting on the air conned bus for long enough to cool down, we stupidly made the decision to continue on. Maybe it was the heat stroke that clouded our judgement? I don't know, but onwards we went, with quite a few other stupid people.

We arrived and luckily our guide just pointed out a few attractions and told us where to meet him rather than having to trudge around behind him. The last thing you want to do in this kind of heat is listen to someone drone on about what date some building you don't care about was built and then rebuilt after the obligatory fire in the 1500s!

So, the famous thing about Arles is that it is situated at the point which the Rhône begins to fragment into a vast natural delta, which made it an obvious site for the Romans to build a city back in the day. It is a miracle that the city hasn't fallen into the hands of people who just tore things down and it is now on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The town has a amazing Roman buildings, but it is probably most famous for being the town that Vincent Van Gogh spent the last few years of his tragic life. There is the cafe in which he painted, which is now called Vincent Van Gogh Cafe.

It was probably called something else back then though......

It also had the famous Yellow House, but to make way for the TGV fast train, the house had to be pulled down. There is talk of them rebuilding it, but nothing has happened as yet.