Flamingo land

 

 Off to the seaside for us and a harbourside  aire at Carro which is west of Marseilles. As you can see from the photo, we are parked in the sea, well as close as one can get without getting our feet wet.

It is a wind surfers paradise so we enjoyed watching the lithe young things doing their stuff out on the waves. The sunsets were beautiful, possibly because the Mistral had blown away most of the cloud cover.

 

We decided to continue the Roman cultural theme, with a trip to Arles, but sadly Arles was full. There was nowhere to park a camper van remotely near the city centre. Even tourist coach drivers were falling out with mild mannered motorhome owners as everyone vied for a parking spot in the designated area near the bus station. Drivers circled round possible departees like birds of prey preparing to pounce on  unsuspecting field mice .As we left, somewhat disappointed, we passed droves of unsuspecting camping-cars on their way in, who would shortly discover the problem and who would themselves, be making the same hasty departure.

We drove to a lovely town which we have visited before, Les Sts.Maries de la Mer . It has a marvellous stretch of  beach where parking is possible for two kilometres along the shore.

 and we know that there will be plenty of like-minded campers there.

 We can look across the vast expanse of lowland that is the Camargue and see flamingos wading in the saline waters of the small lakes or etangs. There is yet to be a sighting of the bulls or the white horses galloping through the surf.
We have decided that it is a postcard myth although there is plenty of pony trekking along the beach and along the network of paths which criss- cross the National Park.

From our shingle bank there

are views of blue canals, choppy seas and sandy beaches.The temperature is a very pleasant 30* and we feel very fortunate to be here and not in England in the rain!!