Aigues-Mortes

The Chef is in town for a few weeks to pack up his house for the final move back to the US. He brought his two daughters and their cousin with him, and as the cousin has never been to France, he thought a day trip would be a good break-from-packing, I mean educational outing. So a bunch of us loaded up into two cars and headed out of Marseille.

In the car, Creedence asks if any of us have ever been to Aigues-Mortes (where we were headed first). Flower responded no, she had not. I turned to her and said, "Yes, you have. You went with me. In 2008." She responded, "No, we went to Arles."

I then explained to the car my confusion between Arles and Nimes, and that I finally got them straightened out back in October. But while I am often confused between Arles and Nimes, I'm not confused between Arles and Aigues-Mortes. Aigues-Mortes is a medieval walled-in city, and Arles has a colosseum and the cafe that Van Gogh painted...and I'd never been there until October. Flower said, "Well, I've been to the walled-in city." Yes...in 2008 with me. I seem to remember taking photos then, but I can't find them now, and I didn't even blog about going. But I do know that we went, because I remember there was a temporary exhibit that had stuffed sheep being thrown over the city walls, and well, that was just weird.

Once we'd arrived in Aigues-Mortes, we went straight to lunch. We found a pizzeria and I was surprised to see that the special of the day was a filet of kangaroo. I asked the waitress if that was really true and she assured me that it was. I immediately thought, "Well, I can eat pizza any time, but how often do I see kangaroo on the menu?!" So I ordered it. It tasted like steak and was very tender. Very good. I laughed afterwards that it could very easily have been from a cow, because it sure didn't taste different, but would be easier to sell as kangaroo. Because really? What's a random pizzeria in a small medieval French town doing selling kangaroo?!

After lunch, we did a little bit of souvenir shopping. While I was in a shop, a man approached Pantene and me and immediately began to speak to us in English. For about 10 minutes non-stop. About how he's a blues musician and plays with Michael McDonald. And how he lives in Cuba because it's a great place to live and there aren't that many communists anymore. And that his name is Patti Fatti, P-A-T-T-I-F-A-T-T-I (he spelled it twice for us), and that we can google him and here is his business card. And "you're from Alabama?" and of course he had to begin singing Sweet Home Alabama including the guitar riffs until he couldn't remember the second line of the song and needed my help.

Oh my.

So once we escaped the-man-no-woman-would-want-to-marry (because her last name would be Fatti), we headed over to the Tower of Constance. There is a memorial to the Huguenots (French Protestants) in front of it that was pretty cool to see. I've been reading some French history stuff lately, and when you add the fact that I am a Protestant living in France, the Huguenot part is really interesting to me. Aigues-Mortes is a walled city that King Louis IV (Saint Louis) built during his reign, leaving for two of the crusades from there. He was "the first king of France to have a Mediterranean port...Sheltered by the city walls, in 1278 the port became the only southern port in the kingdom, handling goods such as spices and wool. But when Provence became a part of France in 1481, Marseille took its place. After the revocation of the the Edict of Nantes in 1685 (which established Protestantism as a religion in France), the towers of Aigues-Mortes, formerly a Protestant city, were turned into prisons for the Huguenots." (From the brochure at the Tower). There were several statues of Louis around town. Even though he was taken captive during one of the crusades, the book I read didn't mention that his hands were cut off...

The Tower of Constance is not famous for Saint Louis, though.

It's famous for Marie Durand, a Huguenot who was imprisoned for her faith. She could have won her freedom by simply stating "recant." She refused, and instead carved the word "resist" in the stone of her tower cell. She remained there for 38 years until she was justly freed. What a testimony to persevere in the faith!

Because of the persecution the Huguenots faced for their faith,they fled France, and carried the Protestant faith into the world. I am thankful for that. (This memorial represents that with their cross in the top left, the prison bars in the bottom left, and the sail boats on the right.)

After seeing the "resister," we had some fun storming the castle...

Above is a view of the city walls, and the town within the walls. Below is CSI, me, and Pantene showing our excitement about being up in the tower.

And then we headed over to Nimes. I just loved the way the sunlight was hitting this church steeple.

We walked by some Roman ruins (although this one doesn't look too ruined).

Me, CSI, and the Artist in front of some ruins.

Took a spin around the colosseum.

And called it a day. What a good day it was! On days when Marseille gets to be too Marseille-ish (yall who've been here know what I mean), it's good to get out into the beautiful small-town southern France.