2021, September and the coming to the end of our holiday😢😢😢😢😢😢.

Not much to say really as we just pottered over old ground.

Flamingoes.

The 3rd tent fitting ----we are getting very good now at putting the framing up!!!!

Phillip and Nicolas doing the final fitting of the new back end of out winter tent...we bought some rather heavy material from the uk (circus tent plastic type canvas) so that made things trickier.. but all done now.

Just love Phillips' car.

These guys are pretty cool, and if I could stand up on a board with confidence, I would have a go.

Luckily the rains came the following day!! Cold, miserable, and it rained so hard we felt like we were in a submarine ( I even got my hottie filled for my cold feet) 

At last we have visitors in Bill and Min for 5-7 days.

Off to Marsellian for a few days then we headed up towards Beziers.

To make the buildings flow the builders here have put up a stainless frontage down the side of the building which gives you the impression of a slopping roof side.

And Marseillan of course is famous for its production of Noilly Prat Vermouth.  

Hire boats get up to all sorts of things, playing bagpipes and trumpets,, but the guy sat on the

front and played the drums everytime they went into a lock

Lunch out with Bill, Min, Alan and Shelia.  

And the wine was so good we bought a small 10L cask home with us 

from the winery next door.

One job Bill and Max got done was to put in the new galley fridge--- a well deserved beer I think..  

Odd pictures of Beziers from our cycle rides.

 So now ready for packing up, and finally leaving France on our 88th day. 

PCR tests all done and the mountains of paperwork, tent erected again, but fits well-- this one should hold!!  and we are ready.

We left at 10am and did a long drive to Dieppe and caught the midnight ferry. 

Arrived home at 5 am, with a slight feeling of jetlag.

Another use for a face mask--a eye mask!!! 

2021 Up to the end of August. 

After all the excitement of Marseille, we are back to being lazy and just pottering around. So not much to report except chatter.

We passed this little sail boat twice in 10 days, a family of 4 having a lovely holiday on the water. 

------Small  !!!!! and soo cute.

At Frontignan you see all sorts and these ladies were constantly having  a tete-d-tete everynight on the bench next to us, being thoroughly entertained by the antics of the hire/bumper boats coming through the bridge at 7pm and mooring up.

Visited the lovely old town/village of Marseillan on the E'Tang---no free mooring here unfortunatly but with tongue in cheek you can ask for the 3rd night free. 

Able to get a good picture of Kiwi Rose.

At night, romantic lights across the E'tang , warm night and company..

Off on our cycle rides to ride to Marseillan Plage and Cap D'Adge for excercise and to be noisy. Amazing what people take to the beach........

Boys and their toys   😁

This rubbish bin is used-- may work for all beaches especially Auckland beaches.

Then into Agde and past the nudist colony-- have to pay to go into the village and beaches,and produce your vaccines certs or 48 hr neg covid test --needless to say, we thought we might give it a miss.

Walking around naked, shopping,  pushing a supermarket trolley just didn't appeal to us!!!

Back to Les Arsequires and oysters again.... brought back to the boat by Lucy's trusted bicycle..

and saw this--- the hireboat passed us at speed, driver up top chatting away on his cell phone, .. next thing we saw was this 😲😲😲😲😲

After about 10 mins of rocking and engine reveved he managed to get off the rocks--                           and he was still floating as he rounded the corner.

 Off to Aigues-Morte which we have visited the last 2 years, this time we wanted to see the 4 day                  re-enactment of the crusades (11-12AD) before Frontignan, but lucked out again through COVID. 

Aigues-Morte has a rich and historic history, built by King Louis in 13C to provide the kingdom of France with a mediterranean sea port in which to send off his Crusades. . Now sea and land has jiggled and it about 8 kms inland up a canal. Surrounded by salt marshes which produce huge amounts of salt, the area is also famous for its white Camargue horses and breeding bulls which still run in semi freedom and are looked after by herdsman.

T

The next night the sea mist comes in after a hot day.

The plan below shows how intact the old town is. 

Out on our bikes again exploring.

The gates of an ancient watch tower toll road, The Carbonniere Tower still stands out on the marshes.. 

Thought this might be a nice small project to keep us busy over rthe winter-- sometimes we are quite tempted till we think about our age and the cost and effort....

One of our cycle trips took us to one day we decided to cycle to the village of Saint Laurent D'Aigouze to watch the bull running. These Camargue bulls are small and fast!! The idea is the runners have small hooks on one hand in order to try to take the rosettes off the bulls horns. Points are gained and its a real competition.  The roseetes on the bulls back show the bulls postion in the competition as well. Nobody is supposed to get hurt, but a few twisted knees, and an unfortuate horn in

 a mans buttock was about all we saw,-- oh yes and a bull that stunned hinself when he jumped out of the ring-but not for long!! A few videos follow.

This is day 5 of a 7 day festival. The arena is right next to the church in the centre of a small village with bars around the outside. people drss up to honour this time old tradition.

These bulls are fast and have sharp horns. This one jumped out 4 times during his 12-15 mins of fame.. No wonder they are so respected ( this was the one the got a man in the buttock) 

The final part of the day was watching the herdsmen return the bulls to the fields, guilding them through the village streets.

This video is very short and fast -- you may to look a few times...no wonder they gallop through the streets.

 So now we go back to Frontignan to get ready for a final fitting of the winter tent.

Our summer play area.

 

 2021,  August  5th.

Beziers.

We have been very lazy in the heat, but finally we took our bikes up into Beziers to wander about before we left again. We found they had set up an amazing sculpture park in the main square, that apparently lights up at night ...so far we have been to lazy and hot to venture out so late!!

And rode back down through the park.

Built in 1893 represent Titan Atlas carrying the world. He rests on a giant seashell supported by seahorses lead by angels. The head of the god, Pan, spits a trickle of water in which 2 children play.

Headed back to the Etang to meet up with Alan and Shelia (who live in the area) for 3 birthday gathering at an  ''all you can eat -seafood buffet''  in Bouzigues, one of the centres for osyters on the E'tang.

For Max's birthday we caught the train to spend a couple of nights in Marseille.  We stayed right down in the Vieux-port, (old port),  which seemed to be centre of things.

We did the noddy train to both sides of the port.(Just a few pictures) 

Along the coast to the past Islands of Frioul and The Chateau d'lf, where the stories of The Count of Monti Cristo were set, and up to the Basilique Notre-Dame de la Garde, that watches over the sailors, fishermen and people of Marseilles. Such an amazing view over Marseilles. 

 

You can see the references to the ships and sailors by the model boats hanging from the ceiling and the pictures on the walls.

                             

    

This shows the hotch-potch higglty pigglty of the roofs of the old biuldings in old parts of town, with the huge new Orange Velodrome in the dstance..

Night view from Cafe in Vieux Port, showing the Basilique on the hill ,The Abbaye, the Fort Ganteaume at the harbour entrance. ( other side is Fort Saint-Jean)

View of Vieux Port from our balcony.

                Now of course we can't go anywhere without a small crisis. 

So the french are really into protests and of course the latest is against Covid vaccines and vaccine passports.

                                            

So we watch them coming down the street from our balcony, trying to understand their chants.

(Max thought they were saying USA, when I think they were saying Liberty,)

.

We had already watched the police getting ready and dressed in full body protection around the corner not really knowing what was going on earlier in the day. So leaning out, watching the people,====next thing tear-gas cannisters are shot into the crowd... Now we have never been anywhere near something like this and we now understand why people run away so fast.  We were 4 floors up and the gas still managed to get into our eyes and it really stings- very uncomfortable and smells terrible. 

Luckily the whole episode with the gas didn't last longer that about 5-10 mins, and after a lots of shouting and noise etc, things quietened down.

 MORNING FISH MARKET STALLS.

                                Other side of town now, The Cathedral, old tiny streets,old Forts etc. 

The most amazing mosaic floor inside this Catherdal. 

The forts on either side of the old port harbour entrance..

   

We also vsisted the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations. An incerdible eye opening expo about the world as we know it and how we have really screwed it up.

After 2 days the long climb back up to the station to catch the train back to Frontignan.

Thank god no bikes this time.

Of course we love to visit big hardware stores, this like bunnings,

 we just loved to selection of sinks up on the wall. SOOO much choice on view.

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST----

The birdman of the South.!! 

Everyday he would come down to the quai and feed the birds.

😀😀😀😀

And we thought Mary Poppins was dead!!!!