Day 25 - Unterlegkeile weg! 🇩🇪

Chocks away ! - At O Five Fifty Eight hours (0558hrs) the first German campervan started its engines and taxied down the sleeping lines of vans to escape the ticket man. His 2nd in command took off 10 minutes later. Just as the sun creeped over the horizon, the French garbage men arrived, promptly, at 0630hrs. Jill, with her ear plugs in, was oblivious to it all. I got up and put the kettle on 🤨.

    We weren't rushing to avoid the ticket man, the €15 was already counted out in coins ready for him/her but we felt good we had managed to get up, had breakfast and packed away before 8am. As we taxied towards the exit, we spotted the little mans scooter parked next to his booth and he was just opening up. Surprised to see us, we said hello and offered him the money. He counted, smiled then gestured did we want a ticket to come back in later! We thanked him, no, and set off. 

The little port of Saintes-Marie-de-la-Mer is a tourist hotspot. With its marina, night clubs, children's fairground etc is starts to get 'rammed' from this time of the year onwards. Today was market day and already the narrow streets were lined with vans as people started setting up stalls and the yatch'ers had started emerging from their bunks to get across the road to sit in the shade and have breakfast.

We had timed it just right. The workmen were arriving to block off one of the roads and make it one way for the market. We managed to wizz past them and escape. 

    We had 4 goals for the day. Wild white horses, flamingos, salt marshes and lighthouses. Jill does like her lighthouses 🤗. There are a string of 3 lighthouses along the coast line and, if we navigated it right, we could get to see all of them and tick off the 

other things along the way. Again, parking spots along the evershrinking roads we needed to take to get into the heart of the 'vast' salt marches and water ways were scarse. 

We started to play our own version of 'I Spy' 😆....... 

"Ooo, is that a flamingo?"...."no, its a carrier bag on a stick".."O 😞"

"Ooo, is that a flamingo?" ..."no, its a Stork of some kind" .."O 😞"

"Ooo, is that a horse?" ..."no, its a gap in the hedge with water behind it and the sun reflecting off it" .. "O 😞"

"Ooo, is that a flamingo?" ..."no, its a horse!" .."Ooooo 😀"

As luck would have it our patience paid off. The gods had provided us with a parking place and an observation tower, even if it was next too a smelly waterway.

We got to see the horses and birds, even if they werent flamingos but we still had a way to go so there was hope yet. "Ooo are there birds on that field?"..."You mean the paddy field?"..."what? 😯".... Yes they have paddy fields in this part of France and yes they grow rice here. We later say a roadside stall selling local rice, a bit differnt from the veg, cheese and wine stalls we had seen in other regions.

In order to get to the lighthouses we would have to go a little 'off road' so to speak. The only way to get to them (apart from walking) was by driving over the 'sea dikes', man made stone and dirt 'walls' only a few feet high and prone to flooding.

We got stuck behind a Swiss tourist, doing 15 mph who was probably 'freaked out' because it was so flat and missing his mountains but not much further on we were down to 5mph ourselves!

It was 'bumpy' to say the least 🫨.

As good as Jill is, no matter which track she picked or how slow we went, the van was all over the place, lurching from side to side. It was really surprising none of the locker catches gave way it was that that extreme.

It was not looking promising. Already we had passed closed, flooded roads and when we arrived at our first major junction and carpark one way was shut and the other had even worse roads and it was still over a mile to the lighthouse.

(lighthouse in the distance, honest!)

Jill didnt want to risk the van or run the risk of ripping the water pipes off the tanks underneath so we decided the lighthouse's  (phare) of De la Gacholle, De Beauduc and De Faraman would have to wait for another day.

Now what 🤔. The next plan was to head north while it was still early and find somewhere to stay so we could go and see The Pont du Gard and maybe even the city of Avigon 🤗

(The Pont du Gard is an ancient Roman aqueduct bridge built in the first century AD)

By the time we got to Vers-Pont-du-Gard it was way past kunch time. Arriving at the carpark, the cost was €9, with only a few hours left till it was closed. It was hot, we would get very sweaty walking around and we still didnt have anywhere to stay the night. As luck would have it, 1/2 mile away was a CampingCarPark were we could stay for 24hrs with electric and water for €11 😀.

Back we went, got in and set up then had a late lunch. We parked next to a picnic table, a rairaty at these sites.

Time to celebrate with ..... The Pork Pie 🫨

We had found this in a supermarket a couple of days ago and it had been sat in the fridge waiting to make its debut appearance.

A lot more 'chunky' than a regular UK pork pie I must admit it was very tasty. The pastry was crunchy on the outside and soft inside. The pork was well seasoned with not too much fat. In all, a contender for the ultimate pork pie. 🤗

After a couple of beers in the sun all plans go out of the window. We decided we would stay and go to The Pont du Gard first thing in the morning when it was cooler. What to have for tea?. "I will walk to the Lidl, its only about 5min, what do we need?"..."Well, try and get a quiche and some salad, that's one meal. Get some chicken thighs and tomatoes for a tray bake, that's another and we need a courgette for the stir fry, that will make 3 meals".

     Off I trotted in the heat of the day. The Lidl, 5 min walk away was derelict ; the new Lidl on the retail park was 20 min away. An hour later, hot and sweaty I was back having a beer as Jill went thru the rucksack. "You've got a cucumber not a courgette, there is no salad and I have NO idea what this is in this tray but it has a little kidney with it! We cant make any of the 3 meals with what we have here. 😠 Get out in the sun with your beer!"...."ok 😞"

    45 min later, Jill had surpassed herself with a Italian inspired dish of Rabbit in red wine with peppers, onions and potatoes. 😋

Note to self: download the Google Translate app to my phone before I next go shopping 🥴