Continuing our Roadtrip: Revisiting the South of France

We continue our roadtrip in the South of France, with more historical & natural sites including Arles, Les Baux, La Camargue, Canal du Midi and Carcassonne. (Sunset in Arles)

Visiting Arles, Les Baux de Provence, La Camargue, Canal du Midi, Carcassonne, Forteresse de Salses, and Côte Vermeille

Like so many young Australians of my era, my first major overseas trip was to Europe. In the mid-80s, I bought a backpack and a Eurail pass, then flew to London with a girlfriend. We had 4 months to see as much as we could.

Recently, continuing our roadtrip through France , I found myself revisiting some places from my first trip in the South of France 30+ years ago. We’ll take you to some more interesting historical and natural sites, and I’ll share my personal experience and response to a number of them – the second time around.

Arles

The Roman Theatre in the old city of Arles is an important part of its UNESCO World Heritage listing.

I was really looking forward to seeing the World Heritage site of Arles again. Juergen was also keen, as he had never been. Back in the 80s, I arrived by train, with a detailed list of where to go and what to see. The list had been provided by a good friend and fellow teacher. She had lived and taught in Arles, a short time before my trip. She wanted me to experience some of her favourite places, and come back with good memories we could share.

This time, we drove right in to the old city and parked just outside the walls – or where the walls had once been, since there is not much left of them – on the banks of the Rhone. I was eager to see if I recognised anything from that other visit, half a lifetime ago.

The old city of Arles is a great place to just wander around. You’re almost guaranteed to stumble upon the important sites, which put it on the UNESCO list:

• Roman theatre, arena and cryptoportico from 1 BC
• Roman baths and cemetery from 4 AD
• Romanesque Saint-Trophime church and cloister from 11 & 12 AD

The Romanesque Saint-Trophime cloister, begun in 12th century, is one of the important monuments in the World Heritage listing of Arles.

Arles is a good example of the adaptation of an ancient city to medieval European civilization.
Source: UNESCO World Heritage listing

The World Heritage old town of Arles shows its history in every street, with old and new standing side by side. Notice the new building with a glass facade, incorporating an old entrance.

When you wander the streets and alleys of the old city, you will also pick up on the atmosphere of a historic city with a real life today. Since we visited in late autumn, many of the outdoor cafes and restaurants were closed for the season. But those that were open, catered mostly to the people who lived there. The houses show their age, but often have colourful window shutters and plants to brighten their appearance. It is obvious that real people live in the old city of Arles.

Arles also has several museums. We went to the Arles Archaeological Museum. It has an impressive collection of antiquities, including a Roman barge discovered on the riverbed of the Rhone in 2004. Raising it required years of study in situ, and nearly 50 specialists to raise it and preserve it! You can see an informative video of this painstaking process at the museum.

The UNESCO World Heritage site of Arles has an impressive amphitheatre. Unfortunately, the interior was being renovated when we were there this time.

Visit the Arles Archaeological Museum to see this Roman Barge, which was only discovered in 2004. It had lain on the bed of the Rhone for centuries, before being carefully raised and restored.

Also at the Arles Archaeological Museum, is this collection of carved sarcophagi, from the Roman era.

We recommend the Arles Tourist Information Office; most of the staff speak English and are knowledgeable and helpful. There are several options for passes to visit the monuments and museums. It takes a bit of working out, but is much cheaper than paying individual entry to each of them. You can buy them at the tourist office, online, or at the first monument or museum you visit. They helped us decide which option best suited what we wanted to see, in the time we had.

Impressions – my second time in Arles

I really liked being in the old city of Arles. It was uncrowded and quiet, and we could wander at will, taking photos of interesting houses and small passages, as well as the major sights. It didn’t seem to have changed very much from my first visit. But, it was late November, and we were told that in summer it is absolutely crowded with tourists, these days.

Les Baux de Provence

“A small town that seems to be carved out of the top of a hill.” This was the description from my friend, as she insisted that I rent a car and visit Les Baux. It was one of her favourite places for weekend trips, when she lived in Arles.

A typical street scene in the small fortified town of Les Baux. Notice the citadel in the background, which stands on the highest point.

Of course I wanted to drive out there again. I remembered the countryside with white, rocky, limestone hilltops. You can see the village in the distance, but it blends into the landscape. Les Baux is a fortified town, with a citadel on the highest ground. We arrived at around 4.30, and decided it might be nice to walk up to the town, find a café, and maybe have a look around, before we looked for a place to park for the night. It’s not an arduous climb, but it’s all uphill – first on the road and then by stairs.

The town is quite small, with very narrow streets. We decided against exploring the Citadel – it was late in the day; it had an entrance fee; and we’d seen quite a lot of castles since returning to Europe. Our quest for an open café was fruitless and within an hour we were back in Bertita driving to a place nearby to spend the night.

We overnighted in a parking lot, just below the Carrieres de Lumieres in Les Baux. Behind Bertita you can see Sculptures des Baux, a collection of strange sculptures amongst the rocky landscape.

The parking lot was next to the old limestone quarries, which have a new life now as Carrieres de Lumieres – Quarries of Lights. One of our French followers on Facebook had recommended this place, and we are very grateful.

The old quarries have been transformed into an art-based, sound and light show. The next day we went for the experience. It’s a bit difficult to describe, but the walls of the quarry are used as screens and, as you wander through the ‘rooms’, the pictures, often animated, change. All set to amazing music. There were 2 shows programmed when we were there. They are on constant repeat and you can stay as long as you like. The 2 shows we saw were:

• Picasso and the Spanish masters, using the artwork of the artists and set to classical music
• Flower Power – Pop Culture, the music and symbols of the 60s, a short show

Both impressed us. We stayed through 2 sessions of each.

Carrieres de Lumieres in Les Baux. This is what the quarry looks like between shows.

Picasso and the Spanish masters at Carrieres de Lumieres in Les Baux. This is the same section of the old quarry as shown in the first picture.

Between Arles and Les Baux, you can stop off to visit the Abbaye de Montmajour. We only stopped to photograph the exterior. We are slowly learning that we can’t stop to investigate everything that looks interesting. Europe has a much greater concentration of such sights than we experienced in South America – but we only have 90 days at a time to cross from one non-Schengen country to the next. (This time it was the UK to Morocco, via Belgium and Germany.)

Flower Power – Pop Culture at Carrieres de Lumieres in Les Baux: a 10 minute media presentation guaranteed to stimulate a nostalgic response in anyone of our age and older.

Impressions – my second time in Les Baux

I was disappointed with my experience. I remembered a vibrant town, full of people going about their lives. There were restaurants and cafes and a few tourist shops. This time the only businesses open were tourist shops. The restaurants and cafes were mostly closed for the season. Any that were still operating were closed for the day by 4.30. I also had the feeling that nobody really lived there anymore. That the town was really just a tourist attraction, waiting for the next busload. It no longer stands out as a must see place for me. There are plenty of other more interesting fortified towns – like Perouges , for example. But the Carrieres de Lumieres [official website] certainly made the visit worthwhile.

La Camargue

My friend’s other favourite place to visit on weekends was the Camargue: wetlands with cowboys on white horses. Back then, she also suggested taking a rental car from Arles to drive into the Camargue, so we came and went in one day.

This time we drove there in Bertita, and stayed a few days in a lovely spot. We were right on the water, with lots of birds, including the famous flamingos. It was a very relaxing and beautiful place to be. Once again, I’ll remind you that it was almost winter. I imagine the summer would be much busier.

Wetlands are beautiful places to watch the sun go down. The reflection in the waters of the Camargue create a lovely sunset image, with the ever-present flamingos.

The Camargue is the Rhône delta, made up of 20,000 hectares of wetlands, marshland, farmland and scrubland. It includes the Camargue Nature Reserve and other protected areas. It’s on the tentative list for recognition as World Heritage, and was the first French wetland of international importance declared under the Ramsar Convention. It is a very important habitat for birds, including the greater flamingo; for some of them, this is their only nesting place in France. There are also many migratory birds, which spend their winter here.

The white Camargue horses are indigenous to this watery environment, and one of the oldest breeds of horses in the world, having lived in the Camargue for thousands of years. Curiously, the foals are born dark, some almost black, and fade to the light colour as they mature. They are traditionally ridden by the ‘Gardiens’ – Europe’s only cowboys.

The cowboys of the Camargue: a Gardien on a Carmargue Horse in the waters, with flamingos as a backdrop. This is the essence of La Camargue. Unfortunately, we didn’t take the photo .

Winter in the Camargue: when not surrounded by water, the narrow roads are often tree-lined like this one.

Impressions – my second time in la Camargue

Wetlands are wonderful places to have time. My first visit was much too hurried. You can’t really appreciate how big and how special the Camargue is, in an afternoon drive from Arles. I have few distinctive memories from that visit. This time, I left with the impression that this very important wetland is being well-managed and will be here for future generations to experience with similar awe.

If you only have limited time for the Camargue you might be interested in this blog post, which describes what you will see during a jeep tour through the Camargue [in German w. Translation Button]. You can book this tour here .

Aigues Mortes

There are very few urban areas in the Camargue, Les Saintes-Maries de la Mer being the main town of the area. We passed through to shop, but didn’t stay. Instead, we drove on to the fortified, mediaeval town of Aigues Mortes. Its name means ‘dead water’ because the town is surrounded by the salty marshland of the Rhone delta.

Just outside Aigues Mortes you will find this tower. Constructed in the 13th century and restored in the 19th, it was once a strategic part of the defenses of the fortified town. The only road access through the Camargue, passed through this gate.

A stunning view of the Camargue, from the top of the Carbonniere Tower, outside Aigues Mortes.

But first we visited the Carbonniere Tower . Once a part of the defence of Aigues Mortes, it is surrounded by swamp, and stands astride a road that was originally the only land route into the town. It was restored in the 1800s and provides a splendid view in all directions, if you climb to the top. The walls of Aigues Mortes are impressive, but there is not much left inside them of the mediaeval era. Still, it’s a pleasant place to wander around.

The mediaeval walls of Aigues Mortes are still impressive.

Beziers – Canal du Midi

The 240Km Canal du Midi was built between 1667 and 1681. This World Heritage listed engineering feat joins the River Garonne in Toulouse to the Mediterranean coast at Agde, effectively connecting the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. Over its course there are a lot of locks to compensate for the height difference between the river and the sea.

Since we spent time on the canals in England with my sister, we are interested in them. So, on our way to Carcassonne, we stopped outside of Beziers to visit the Fonserannes Locks on the Midi Canal [YouTube video]. This flight of locks is a staircase, where the lower gate of one lock is the upper gate of the next. It’s an impressive sight to see. The canal was built to transport goods, but today it is used only for pleasure boats.

The Fonserannes locks on the World Heritage listed Midi Canal, just outside the city of Beziers: an impressive staircase for boats going up or down.

Carcassonne

Although more than 200Km from Arles, Carcassonne was another town recommended by my friend. I remember it being somewhat difficult to reach with train connections, the first time. But driving our own mobile home allows us the advantage of taking our time, going almost anywhere we want to, and stopping along the way for interesting sights.

From a distance, the fortified city of Carcassonne looks like something out of a fairy-tale.

The citadel of Carcassonne is a perfectly restored medieval town, and protected by UNESCO. It crowns a steep bank above the River Aude, a fairy-tale sight of turrets and ramparts overlooking the Basse Ville below.
[from our Guidebook “DK Eyewitness Travel France” ]

That’s exactly how I remembered it, as described in our guide book. I was really excited to see it again. It was one of my favourite memories from the South of France. We arrived late afternoon, and that was also the view we had – fairy-tale turrets and all – from our parking place. The next morning we climbed the ‘steep bank’ to reach the gate.

Inside the wall, there are many lovely buildings, some of them even original – well the stones, anyway. It defended the border between France and Aragon until 1659, when the treaty of the Pyrenees made its role redundant. The next couple of centuries weren’t kind to the walled city. It’s ultimate fate, little more than a stone quarry for other building projects in the area. It was ripe for demolition. Then along came Eugene Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc in the 19^th century, and restoration began. It took more than 50 years and the result was about 30 per cent of what you see today. Saint Nazaire Basilica, inside the walled city, was also restored and is still functioning as a church.

Please click thumbnails below for a larger photo with description.

Impressions – my second time in Carcassonne

Many visitors are spellbound by Carcassone and mention it among the most beautiful cities in France . True, it is a perfectly restored medieval town. That fact, and the mass of tourist shops, cafes and restaurants, somehow diminishes my appreciation of this site. I imagine I was blissfully unaware of this fact in the mid-80s. We don’t have any castles in Australia, so any walls and turrets were always exciting for me. There are arguments for and against the restoration – and indeed the World Heritage listing. The links below will give you some idea of the controversy surrounding Carcassonne. It is still one of France’s most popular tourist sites, with both French and foreign visitors.

The UNESCO World Heritage site of Carcassonne has undergone extensive restoration work, beginning in the 19th century. On both towers you can clearly see the new stonework above the old, and also the addition of the controversial slate roof.

Forteresse de Salses

After Carcassonne, we headed back to the coast and towards Spain. But we found an interesting place to overnight near an old fort. Once again, this was a small site that was included in our guide book. We spent a quiet night in the parking lot of a winery and went to visit the fort before we drove on the next day.

Forteresse de Salses stands at the old frontier between France and Spain. It is quite typical Spanish military architecture of the late 15^th century and was built to guard the narrow passage between the mountains and the lagoons of the Mediterranean at this point.

Forteresse de Salses: formerly guarded the old frontier between France and Spain. It was one of the first fortifications built to withstand and deflect cannon balls.

Côte Vermeille

For the final stage of our roadtrip through the South of France, we took the scenic coast road of Côte Vermeille, to the border with Spain. This is where the Pyrenees meet the Mediterranean. The views are certainly worth it.

Just one of the amazing views to be had from the scenic coast road of Cote Vermeille.

Summary: Time Changes Everything

I find myself pondering my different experiences of these sights, and wondering what the reason really is:
Is it that in over 30 years the sights have changed so much because of the increase in tourist activity?
Is it that my untravelled 30 year old self saw them from a different perspective than my older and more travelled self?

Since we came from South America to travel in Europe, I find myself looking at many of the main tourist attractions and seeing a ‘theme park’. I do wonder if it’s what tourists expect these days, or if I’m too nostalgic for the ‘good old days’.

I guess I just have to accept – all of the above.

As we drove around Beziers to visit the Fonserannes locks, we spotted the St Nazaire Cathedral, which dominates the city’s landscape.

That being said, I loved travelling the South of France the first time – and I also loved travelling the South of France this time. I much prefer travelling independently of the constraints of public transport, hotels and time. While we may have to travel a little faster than we’d like, because of the Schengen constraints, we really can stop wherever and whenever we please.

We really recommend a slow roadtrip through the South of France.

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