Aigues-Motres

Aigues Mortes

On the same day that we visited Pezenas we stopped off at Aigues-Mortes on our way home from an overnight stay in Nimes. We had woken very early so decided to leave Nimes and head home earlier. As we parked up in Aigues Mortes there was a market in the early stages of setting up, great we would have a look at the stalls on our way back to the car after looking around the town. The old town is where all of the sights, restaurants and hotels are situated on a grid system of streets surrounded on the edges by the thick walls. Aigues-Mortes was originally meant to be the principal Mediterranean port in France, this plan failed as the silt from the Rhone pushed the sea south consigning the town to stagnation among the 'dead waters' hence the name. It was from this town that the Saint/King Louis IX who founded it in 1246, embarked on two of his expeditions. To Cyprus on the Seventh Crusade of 1248 and to Tunis in 1270 where he died. Philip, his son, is responsible for the towns present form. He commissioned Genoan engineers to construct walls emulating those of Damietta in Egypt, a site where Louis had executed an earlier victory. After being initially successful the silt from the Rhone rendered Aigues-Mortes a dead town by the end of the fourteenth century. Although not good news this preserved the town for us to enjoy today, otherwise it would no doubt have been built over and lost forever. Today the town itself is a photographers delight, where you can quite happily walk around for a few hours taking in the fortifications surrounding the thirteenth century streets and stopping off for a rest in the shade at one of the numerous cafes. All of the streets seemed to be exceptionally clean and it did have a slightly fake feel to it like an overgrown model village! Along many of the streets are souvenir shops and film developing places alongside shops selling postcards and other tourist tat. The tourist office is on the 'place' with the Tour de Constance (Pentecost to mid Sept; 9:30am-8pm and mid Sept to Pentecost; 10am-5pm daily; € 4:88) looming large over it. The Tour de Constance was the towns main fortress and home to uncooperative nobles during its time as a prison. The top floor was home to Protestant women of whom Marie Durand was one spending nearly forty years there locked up in the eighteenth century. Her presence is still evident in the graffiti which was etched in the stone walls. Through the tower you can walk along the town walls and enjoy the views over the surrounding area. The tower is nicknamed the 'tower of the salted Bourguignons' which came about during the Hundred Years' War when the town was seized by English allied Burgundian forces in 1418, royalist Armagnacs tried to retake the town. But because of the strong fortifications they had no luck until one night a local citizen came to their aid by letting them in through one of the smaller gates. They crept up on the unsuspecting sleeping Burgundian garrison and slaughtered them before they knew what hit them. Unable to bury the dead bodies they decided to stuff them into this tower layering them with salt as they filled it up! After a nice stroll all around the town we headed back to the car where the market was now fully open and quite busy with local residents purchasing lots of delicious looking food. As well as food there were clothes stalls and household items on sale too. The market is open on Wednesday and Sunday mornings along the avenue Frederic-Mistral. Unusually for us we actually bought some bits, probably as we were beginning to feel peckish having not eaten any dinner the evening before in Nimes. Anyway i had seen some lovely looking bread on the way in, so i bought some of that, the nice thing being that it was sold by weight so we bought roughly 3/4 of a full large loaf of white bread. It cost about € 7 but was well worth it as it was lovely and fresh and we even ate some the day after too as it was still nice and soft. We also bought a small amount of sun-dried tomatoes in a herb and olive oil which cost about € 6 and a couple of punnets of big deep red strawberries which cost € 7 for both (they would only be £1 each at the most back in the U.K. and the bread and tomatoes would have been far more reasonably priced too). And to think people say London is expensive, well we knew when we moved to this part of France that it wasn't cheap so we can't complain! We really liked the town of Aigues-Mortes and will definitely be visiting again, probably when we next have visitors staying with us which i think is in June.

Market Days:

Aigues Mortes ---Sunday--- General

Aigues Mortes ---Wednesday ---General