Another month rushes past

Can you believe that it is nearly the end of November already? If we had

Sandy path near Domaine Fondespierre 

advent calendars we'd be opening our first door on Tuesday!

We are moving on to another new campsite tomorrow, not far from Perpignan, so it is goodbye to Castries. However, I found three photos taken around here on my phone that I want to share so thought I would write this little wrap-up post. We went for a shortish walk on Thursday, just around the nearby woodlands and sandy tracks, but were surprised to suddenly find ourselves alongside rocky outcrops. This area has random mini environments. One minute there's freshly ploughed deep red soil, then a dry-looking vineyard field or olive trees, then back to scrub ground that doesn't look like it can really support anything. We did find a pretty stream too.

And, having seen several small stacks of abandoned bath tubs lying around, we finally discovered why!

We worked out the off road cycleway into Castries. It does still involve maybe a hundred yards of the main road, but otherwise is quiet flat tarmac and avoids most of the hill. The turning is just outside a sports complex and is marked with green paint on the road, but looks to be heading out into the countryside which is why we overlooked it at first. We have used this twice now to cycle into town for shopping trips which seem much more fun when I'm zipping there and back on my bike. Maybe that's just me?

In other news, I am very happy that some lavender flowers I crocheted

My crochet flowers 

were featured in an Etsy treasury list this week. Thank you Shany!

Don't forget my book giveaway! A signed copy of The Judas Scar by Amanda Jennings. The giveaway finishes tomorrow (30th Nov) at midnight so there's still time to make that winning entry. Pick any of the five Ways.

Finally, if you're still trying to figure out what looks a bit different, I have changed the blog theme from tumbling autumnal leaves to bookshelves. I have added a couple more widgets to enable easy blog following too. They're up at the top right, unless you're reading this on a mobile in which case they might be anywhere! There's now a Follow By Email box - just put your address in and you'll get a message whenever I publish a new post. There's also a Google Friend Connect box - those two folks look a tad lonely up there by themselves so feel welcome to sign yourself up too! Of course, my Bloglovin follow button is still in the right-hand toolbar and, if you scroll to the bottom of the page, a Google Followers Box awaits you there

See you in Perpignan :-)

Quick cheese scones recipe

I blogged a fruit scones recipe back in January and was reminded as we

Cheese scones 

ate a cheese scone lunch today that I had not yet gotten around to posting this recipe too. Low on health benefits, but high on taste cheese scones make a cheap and filling lunch which is surprisingly easy and quick to bake. They can also be made the basis of a more impressive meal - top a casserole with cheese scones instead of pastry to turn it into a cobbler, or serve warm cheese scones with a dainty bowl of cream cheese and another of that Christmas chutney languishing in the fridge door as a savoury version of the classic Afternoon Tea.

Ingredients
8oz plain flour
4 tsp baking powder
Pinch each of salt and pepper
40g butter
2 tsp dried parsley
50g grated strong cheese like cheddar or 2 tbsp of a grated hard cheese like parmesan
150ml milk

Preheat the oven to 220c and grease a baking tray (or dust it with flour).

Sieve the flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl. I like to use a half-and-half white and wholemeal flour mix. Dave prefers all white flour. Add the salt and pepper, mixing in well.

Cut the butter into small pieces and rub it into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Try to keep lifting the flour as you work it. Ideally it needs to stay as cool and dry as possible, not go into a buttery clump!

Stir in the parley and the grated cheese.

Add the milk slowly, 1 tbsp at a time, then mix it in with a palette knife or similar. You probably won't need all of it. When the mixture begins to come together, use your hands to make it into a soft dough. The dough so be pliable, but not sticky and, again, try not to handle it too much.

Dust a worktop and rolling pin with flour. Roll out the dough to about an inch / 2.5 cm thick. If you have one, use a pastry cutter to cut the dough into circles. Re-roll the unused pieces back together to get more circles. (If you don't, improvise with a glass, or just cut the dough into triangles with a knife.)

Lay the dough circles onto the prepared baking tray and brush their tops with the left-over milk.

Bake at 220c for 8-10 mins or until they are well risen and the tops are golden.

Serve warm or cold. Scones are best eaten on the same day (within the same hour!) as they are baked.

Petition @SumOfUs against That Disgusting Daily Mail Cartoon

I was disturbed by Donald Trump's recent comments about requiring

American Muslims to carry identity cards. To me, that immediately smacked of 1930s Germany and I wondered if Trump, or other American wannabe leaders, might go further and suggest some form of distinctive badge to be worn at all times? I am amazed at the outpouring of hatred towards followers of an entire religion, although our recent visit to the fortified Crusade town of Aigues-Mortes reminded us that such religious intolerance is sadly nothing new. And the inflammatory rhetoric I keep seeing is beyond belief. Do so few Western people really understand that These Refugees Are Risking Everything To Escape From ISIS and civil war? They need our help, not our anger.

I have also heard that our dear Tory government is threatening to spend British taxpayers money on further bombing of Syria, despite overwhelming evidence from elsewhere that such aggression may well end up causing even more chaos in this war torn country and, therefore, resulting in even more refugees. I have emailed my MP, Kerry McCarthy, via this Care2 petition asking her to take a stand against such shortsighted madness.

We seem to be plunging headlong into 1984.

This morning I received an email from SumOfUs drawing my attention to a disgusting cartoon published in The Daily Mail and asking for signatures to a petition demanding apologies and removal of the cartoon. I am not going to republish here as I am sure that, if you haven't already seen it, the image will be easy enough to Google. I know The Daily Mail has a history of supporting fascism, but to see this kind of blatant bigotry in a mainstream British 'newspaper' in the 21st century turns my stomach. This is not representative of my country.

SumOfUs said "The Daily Mail published a racist editorial cartoon that suggests Syrian refugees are ISIS terrorists - depicting them as rats. It's imagery right out of 1939 Germany. Literally. Tell the Daily Mail to withdraw the cartoon and apologise now.

Millions of people are fleeing a brutally oppressive regime and almost certain extermination. And The Daily Mail depicts these people as rats and mocks their desperation. It’s appalling and hard to believe, but true. The Daily Mail published a cartoon depicting Syrian refugees, one carrying a rifle, and a throng of rats streaming into Europe. It closely resembles an infamous piece of 1939 Nazi propaganda depicting Jewish people as rats shut out from democratic countries after escaping Hitler.

There is no excuse for this hateful, dehumanising cartoon. Tell The Daily Mail to apologise and withdraw the image. Anti-immigrant forces across Europe have already been trying to demonise and dehumanise the four million Syrian refugees fleeing ISIS and a catastrophic civil war back home. With the recent Paris attacks, that trend has only increased. For The Daily Mail to join in, with imagery literally used by the Nazis, is beneath contempt.

The Daily Mail has been here before. It ran articles supporting fascism, the rise of Hitler and Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists, and later whipped up a frenzy of fear when Jewish refugees were seeking shelter in the UK fleeing the Nazis. Now the Mail has turned its hatred on Syrians fleeing war, violence and persecution. We can’t let the Mail’s portrayal of desperate people to stand unchallenged. Join us in demanding that The Daily Mail take responsibility for its cartoon that could have come straight out of Nazi Germany.

Thanks for all you do, Martin, Hanna, and the rest of the SumOfUs team"

Please sign the SumOfUs petition.

Please sign the Care2 petition and email your MP.

I love to ride my bicycle! Sussargues and Castries + cycling travel blogs linkup

It's turned distinctly chilly here in Castries for the past couple of days - a

By a disused well in Sussargues 

nippiness not helped by a persistent wind from the north. We had planned to go cycling yesterday, but plumped for caravan coziness instead. However, when today dawned bright, sunny and wind-free (not that I would know. I didn't wake up until gone nine!) Dave suggested a couple of hours cycling around the local towns.

Long-term blog readers will know that I only bought my lovely not-so-new-anymore B-Fold bike in Roquetas Decathlon last January having previously lost my nerve and not cycled for several years. I still can't explain this impulse purchase and why my then-usual panic didn't kick in when I tried to ride. I am now so glad that it didn't though! I do still have willocky moments, but my confidence is growing ride by ride and I love the sense of freedom. I am sure that I get a stronger sense of a place from having cycled around it than having just zipped through in a car.

Today we cycled for about two hours starting from our Castries

Castries old olive mill which is now the Mairie 

campsite, going out through Sussargues and as far as Saint-Drezery before heading back into Castries town for a little shopping and a well-earned coffee. The D26E3 from the D21 towards Castries is a superb road for a not-so-fit cyclist - a challenging but not outrageously strenuous uphill for a short distance then a long gentle descent on a nice flat surface with beautiful views and plenty of time to spot infrequent traffic. Bliss! Most of this area would be considered flat by car drivers and isn't too hilly on a bike. I only got off to push the very top of a hill once - out of Saint-Drezery - and the others allowed us a good sense of achievement. We certainly kept ourselves warm!

Finding T E Lawrence again in medieval Aigues-Mortes

Aigues-Mortes is one of the places recommended to us by the guy at Le

Aigues-Mortes walls 

Petit Arles creperie in Arles. The historic town is quite a drive from Castries, however we took this opportunity to view the Camargue delta and at one point drove across the thin strip of land past La Grande Motte. We saw several of the famous Camargue ponies and also two flocks of pink and white flamingos. I don't think we have seen flamingos since Tavira so that was exciting. The whole coastline along here looks as if moths have been at it! Huge lakes and ponds are everywhere although there is now a lot of commercial-industrial building too. We did briefly wonder at the long-term security of people living on what is essentially a flood plain.

Aigues-Mortes is certainly an eye-catching place. The thick medieval

Aigues-Mortes gateway 

stone walls surrounding the old town are maintained to a high standard and I can imagine that this would be a ridiculously busy tourist trap in the height of summer. Yesterday was sunny but with a strong wind so outside the town walls felt distinctly wintry. Sheltered inside, especially in a sunny spot was pleasant. We followed green 'P' signs to a free car park within easy walking of the old town. Near to the first huge gateway were several tall information stands, in French, which told the history of Aigues-Mortes. It was too windy to stop and read all of them, but the list of notable celebrities caught my eye as it included not only T E Lawrence (whose grave we saw in Dorset) who visited in 1908, but also two authors I read not so long ago: Ernest Hemingway stayed a while although we weren't told exactly when, and Alexandre Dumas came here in 1841.

Salt mining has been traced back to Neolithic times here and there has

been practically constant habitation since then. Charlemagne had the Matafere tower built in 793 and Louis IX bought the town and its surrounding lands from the Abbey of Psalmody in 1240. Louis IX ordered the massive fortifications, which were completed under his son's rule, and used Aigues-Mortes as a base for sending mercenaries out to the Crusades.  He took part in two Crusades himself, dying in Tunis during his second. From outside, the walls look impenetrable other than the slender arrow slits. From the inside it is possible to see that each slit has an arched area directly behind it with two bench seats, presumably for the sentries to rest upon while keeping their vigil.

I enjoyed simply walking the streets around Aigues-Mortes and was

Plaque above a house doorway 

suprised at the extent of residential housing within the walls. The commercial streets are limited and are mostly made up of restaurants, regional produce shops, tourist tat and expensive boutiques. I did find one shop I very much liked. Coton House is on Grand Rue Jean Jaures and sells beautiful Indian cotton clothing including medieval style laced dresses. The shop had that vintage-hippy-shop incense scent which I love. The prices were pretty good and I allowed myself to be tempted by a pair of embroidered lounge trousers. My Almerian ones have been worn so much they are starting to fall apart at the seams! We also pondered Camargue rice in a grocer's for a while, but didnt really want to spend €4 a kilo on each type and couldn't decide which of the three to try.

Once back into modern Aigues-Mortes, we paused to admire the wide canal that passes by. It's towpath looked very inviting for a long cycle ride!

Canal de Rhone 

A new home near Castries - Camping Le Fondespierre

The peace at Camping Le Fondespierre is pretty much only broken by the

Castries aqueduct 

dropping of nuts! Oaks, pines and olive trees are here in abundance, and we are glad that we have learned not to pitch up directly under them! No one needs to be woken by the midnight clatter of acorns! The olive trees especially are reminding me of our first winter away two years ago and visiting Rudy and Annick's campsite at Beira Marvao, Portugal. I saw on Facebook recently that they have brought in their olive harvest.

Stone cross outside Camping Le Fondespierre 

Pitches here vary widely in size and shape. Ours is nicely sheltered, but I am not sure we have room to put up the awning. There's a good range of facilities - outdoor gym, table tennis, kids play area and a bouledrome. Most of the shower block is closed off for the winter, however the small room where the winter showers are located has a fantastically efficient heater. I saw mention of a library on the website, but haven't spotted it yet. The bar-pizza area also looked closed up yesterday and I guess any books would be in there. Perhaps an influx of campers for Le Weekend will open the doors? Camping Le Fondespierre is one of the pricier ones at €17.10 per night with our ACSI card and wifi is €10 for three days. I saw this stone cross outside the campsite entrance and we assumed it must be a war memorial. However the base isn't engraved with any names so now we aren't sure quite why it is there.

Yesterday afternoon we took advantage of a quiet back road into the nearest town, Castries, and cycled there for a quick shopping trip. It's a little hilly, but we managed! The supermarket is a Casino which has an odd range of products. I am hoping to visit the large greengrocers next door on our next trip as well as making use of the local butcher and bakers. I wonder when the weekly market is ... ?

Camping Le Fondespierre is located within woodlands that are laced with

walking and mountain biking tracks. Our two hour wander today was reminiscent of Spanish walks again with dusty, stony paths, but also unmistakably French sights such as this avenue of trees. We also found a short section of the incredible aqueduct pictured at the top of this post and below. It was designed by Pierre-Paul Riquet - the same engineer who created the Canal Du Midi - and built between 1670 and 1676, although we have seen a couple of online sources claiming it to be Roman. At almost 7km long, the Castries aqueduct is the largest such structure in France to have been built for an individual person, rather than a municipality. It's only function was to transport water to Castries Chateau! Entirely built from local stone, its arches reach up to twenty metres high in places. There is also a short section underground, and the entire aqueduct has a slope of just three metres over the 7km. It certainly was a delightful surprise to suddenly find ourselves beneath a section and then baffling that it vanished, completely obscured by trees, within just a few minutes of walking away.

Castries aqueduct 

The amazing Parc de Figuerolles at Martigues

We first tried to visit the nearby Parc de Figuerolles on Wednesday not

Bassin d'ornement at Figuerolles 

realising that Armistice Day is a public holiday in France. The car park was absolutely packed solid so we turned right around and went on our lakeside walk at Lavalduc instead. Monday afternoon this week was far quieter so we tried again!

I already knew that Figuerolles covers a lot of ground - it's 130 hectares - but I wasn't prepared for quite how many different areas it has. We began by exploring what I think was once the grounds of a grand house. This tower (below) was constructed in 1899 and recently renovated. It's design is meant to make it appear to be a whimsical pigeon loft although it is actually a water tower and part of the extensive irrigation system for the ornamental gardens. The above pictured Bassin d'Ornement is meant to have 'the charm of a spring in rocky ground' and the 'aspect of a grotto'. Hmmm! Again, its primary purpose is irrigation.

Water tower 

Unknown flowers 

Nearby was a playground for those of 'more than six years old' so guess

who was straight onto the climbing frame? Clue: too high for me! We were impressed by the variety of play equipment at this place, but then later we saw the Go Ape style ropes and zip wires elsewhere. Now that really was a huge playground!

The park has dedicated paths and trails for walking, walking with small children, jogging, and family cycle rides. The walking areas had the same dusty paths and vegetation as I remembered from Alcossebre in Spain. We saw cacti and flowering rosemary. Despite having picked up a map leaflet from the reception we still managed to get turned around and a bit lost in the pine woods. We found and then re-found the VTT (velo tout terrain - all terrain bikes) tracks - pedestrian free areas with Keep Out signs all around and some seriously scary looking ramps and jumps. I thought maybe I could manage the beginners' circuit on my little bike. I probably won't go back to find out for sure though.

Dave sitting in a dinosaur egg 

Our next surprise was the perfect play area for me! I was delighted to

The reading room 

spot this semicircle of reclining wooden seats and its sign declaring an area for reading. Now how incredibly thoughtful is that! Admittedly the seats weren't remotely comfortable and prospective readers are advised to take their own cushions, but even so. Every park should have one!

A tree-shaded area was set aside for pony rides from the equestrian centre, and this was just along from the small farm where ponies, donkeys, goats and sheep, rabbits, geese and peacocks are kept. Their enclosures weren't particularly big for the number of animals in each, but they did all look well cared for. We had noticed a small mixed herd of goats and sheep as we entered the park, together with a couple of chatting shepherds. We commented at the time that this sight was a little odd in France, but thought nothing more of it. Seeing the same animals at the farm, I realised that they must be taken out to graze freely.

Peacock at the farm 

The Parc de Figuerolles is a fantastic resource for the local community and its stop is even included on the main bus route from Massane to Martigues. It's obvious that a lot of thought has gone into what people actually want from this park, and the created areas ha e certainly not been done half-heartedly. Best of all - the whole place, with the exception of the mini train, is free. Even the car park! And, having been pronouncing the name as Fig Rolls all day, reminiscing our childhood memories of them and wondering if they were still made, it seemed only fitting to spot the biscuits at Grand Frais while stopping to shop on the way home!

Aylin by Ayse Kulin / The Memory Box by Margaret Forster / Song Of The Vampire by K M McFarland

Aylin by Ayşe Kulin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Buy the ebook from Amazon.co.uk
Buy the paperback from Waterstones

I received a copy of Aylin by Ayse Kulin from its publishers, Amazon Crossing, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.

Aylin is an affluent Turkish woman, brilliant and beautiful, but incapable of finding the happiness she craves in her life. The novel begins with her freak death - murder or accident? - before jumping back to her childhood and adolescence, the moving forward through her life. I found it difficult to really get into the story and never particularly cared about Aylin herself because of the way her tale was told. A leading psychologist, she failed to recognise basic destructive behaviour patterns in herself so the novel is essentially her jumping from one marriage to the next, but with no sense of love or emotion. Supporting characters like her sister and niece came across much more convincingly to me, but I thought the male characters were frequently flat.

I am not sure if the distance I felt from the characters was due to Kulin's storytelling style or whether the translation from Turkish was at fault. Certainly much of the book is set in America which disappointed me as I was hoping to read about Turkey. I was baffled by viewpoint switches such as suddenly finding myself reading the innermost thoughts of a mute nun, and spent most of the book feeling that I had missed the point.

Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Ayse Kulin / Contemporary fiction / Books from Turkey


The Memory Box by Margaret Forster
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Buy the ebook from Amazon.co.uk
Buy the paperback from Waterstones

I discovered author Margaret Forster when I swapped for this book at our Lumburn Court campsite near Tavistock. The Memory Box was in a book box in the shower room!

I was interested to see how Forster would develop her premise of a woman discovering her lost mother some thirty years later, through the contents of a gaudy hat box. Catherine's mother, Susannah, died when she was just six months old. Her father remarried and Catherine had always rejected the idea of her birth mother, instead insisting that her stepmother, Charlotte, fulfilled that maternal role perfectly. Knowing she was dying, Susannah carefully chose, wrapped and boxed eleven items instructing that the box be given to Catherine. However, through various circumstances, Catherine didn't get the said box until after her father, stepmother and grandmother had died too. With a prickly aunt being the only person left who actually knew Susannah, Catherine is left unravelling the myth of her perfectly happy mother's perfect life single-handedly.

The Memory Box is an incredibly introspective and introverted novel which is quite unusual and I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Catherine examines her own life, seeing her choices differently in the light of what she learns about her biological mother. Forster uses her characters to develop a fascinating discussion of motherhood in its many forms and influences. Did Charlotte's constant presence mould the young Catherine to a greater extent than Susannah's genes? Is Catherine's rejection of close friendships and of motherhood for herself a result of her early abandonment?

For me, this novel was a page turner all the way through and I never lost interest in Catherine's quest. Some of her intuitive jumps were too convenient to be believable which why I have only awarded four stars, however overall I very much enjoyed The Memory Box and look forward to discovering more of Forster's work.

Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Margaret Forster / Women's fiction / Books from England


Song of the Vampire by K. M. McFarland
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Buy the ebook from Amazon.co.uk

I received a copy of K M McFarland's vampire trilogy by taking advantage when it was offered for free during the All Hallows Reads Facebook party for Halloween. Song Of The Vampire is the first book in the trilogy and is set in New Orleans, a city I loved when we visited there in Spring 2013. McFarland makes pretty good use of this atmospheric setting and I enjoyed remembering sights such as the St Charles Avenue streetcars and the Mardi Gras bead strings adorning the trees.

Song Of The Vampire is very much a first novel and does have issues with pacing. Some inconsequential scenes are overlong whereas other vital story elements zipped by when much more could have been made of them. I liked the overall story and the untangling of the characters' relationships as each new revelation comes to light. Their dialogue isn't always realistic, especially in mundane conversations, and does go overboard on the lovey-dovey chat - but that might just be my preference! Hopefully, the characterisation will deepen in the next two novels as we discover more about our vampires' lives and world.

Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by K M McFarland / Fantasy fiction / Books from America

A quartet of Roman monuments in Arles

We nearly decided against visiting Arles as the train fare was going to be

Alyscamps avenue 

some €20 each and Dave's car park research took ages to come up trumps. In the end we got it together to travel there on Thursday and I am so glad we did. Dave recollected reading somewhere online that, for preserved Roman structures, touring southern France is far more rewarding than visiting Rome and we are both coming to agree with that opinion. Not that we didn't like Rome. We did!

Arles has a number of more unusual historic attractions and we took advantage of their good value multi-site pass. Priced at €11 per person, the Pass Liberte allowed us to visit four monuments of our choice, the Musee Reattu and a further museum of our choice. As it turned out, we only got around four monuments in our afternoon. However the tickets last for a month so I have kept them in case we choose to make a return trip next week. They have two images of Arles monuments on the backs too so I have blu-tacked them up inside Bailey in the meantime.

We began at the Alyscamps necropolis which was world-famous in the

Roman arch at Alyscamps 

Middle Ages even gaining a mention in Dante's Inferno. Begun as a Roman cemetery for well-off citizens, Alyscamps remained in use and fashionable for some 1500 years. The 4th century Saint Genesius is reputed to have been buried there after his execution for refusing to persecute early Christians so the necropolis was a cult focal point for him. There is also a large Campostela sun at the entrance because Alyscamps is on one of its pilgrim routes. Nowadays the site comprises of a fascinating single road of sarcophagi in various states of repair leading to the imposing church Saint Honorat. It isn't at all spooky in daylight and, being there in Autumn, we got to see it pretty much as Van Gogh and Gauguin did in October 1888. There is a Van Gogh trail around Arles with reproductions of his relevant paintings displayed in the places where he painted them.

After a quick stop at the Tourist Office for a map, we paused at the Coffee

Arles Cryptoporticus 

Me coffee shop for a good hot chocolate before Monument Number Two - the Cryptoporticus situated underground below the Hotel De Ville. I think this was my favourite of our four monuments as I have never seen anything quite like it before. Essentially the foundation level of the ancient Roman Forum, this is now several metres below street level and was surprisingly warm. We were able to walk along the Roman porticoed 'streets' and also saw where small shops would have been. The Cryptoporticus extends way beyond the present-day Hotel de Ville although not all of it is open to the public. It was easy to imagine Romans being exactly where we now stood, especially because of the almost complete absence of distracting modernity. The lighting throughout was kept pretty dingy, presumably for conservation reasons, so photography on my phone was difficult and I only achieved this single successful image.

We both liked the relaxed vibe and general tattiness of Arles. There was a

smattering of souvenir shops and we did manage to frequently dodge a large school group, but Arles didn't feel like a tourist town. We could have spent much longer wandering the interesting streets and soaking up the atmosphere, as well as visiting the numerous art galleries which were barely acknowledged. The Van Gogh Foundation was one we considered, but their main exhibition was of David Hockney. Having been underwhelmed by his work at Bilbao's Guggenheim a few years ago, we passed!

Lunch was a cheese and ham crepe with coffee at a cute little cafe called Le Petit Arles. It only seats about a dozen people and we were the sole customers for much of the time which gave us a chance to chat with the owner. He noted down a few other historic French sites we should make a point of visiting so, although we can now tick off Arles, our To See list has still grown.

There isn't much left of the Roman theatre. It is mostly the semi-circular

Arles Roman theatre 

stone seating and a couple of tall columns with a precarious lintel at the back of the stage. Off to the side, piles of decorative stone and column segments are awaiting their reconstruction like a fantastically complicated and heavy jigsaw puzzle! Finance has been agreed, in a budget of over €100 million, for restoration of both the theatre and its neighbouring amphitheatre, but I didn't notice mention of a projected timescale. It is miraculous that anything survives at all though. A signboard showed an 1800s sketch of the area with houses built on it and just a sort of courtyard where the modern stage is now erected. The theatre space is now used again for its original purpose. A large wood clad lighting and sound box has been sympathetically added as well as matching bathrooms. The site is definitely worth a visit but I was glad that we had already visited the completely renovated Sagunt one as that gave a much better idea of the Roman staging and practicalities. Arles' is light on real information.

Does this look like an edge bit to you?

Also lacking in information, especially after the superb audioguide tour of

Arles amphitheatre 

Nimes' one, is Arles amphitheatre. We could see over to the amphitheatre from the theatre and it was just a couple of minutes walk away. Again now used as a bullring, the amphitheatre is perfectly functional and has wood and metal seating bolted to the Roman stone benches. An unusual feature is the three huge medieval stone towers - one at each compass point with the fourth having since been destroyed. In the middle ages, like at Nimes, housing was built inside the amphitheatre making it into an easily defendable fortress town. There's a great view from the top of the tower we climbed. Apparently the Roman top tiers of seating no longer exist so the structure rose even higher than it does today. I was seriously impressed by trying to understand the skills needed not only to create such an incredible building two thousand years ago, but to even imagine it and then replicate the design in so many different locations across an empire.

Walking around Lavalduc and its lake

I have felt a bit under the weather the past few days due to to having at

least a dozen mosquito bites. I don't react well to them and tend to get woozy if there are too many at any one time. Unfortunately l'Etang de berre has a large population of the buggers and they happen to like our campsite too! Despite the sunny weather I've been staying inside as much as possible so it was nice to go for a rural wander yesterday afternoon around a relatively bug-free lake! It's not possible to walk all round Lavalduc lake so we went as far as a railway line in one direction and a big sluice gate in the other. I love this image of Dave sitting gazing out over the water!

We had a short road walk before finding a way to the water and were

amazed to spot this ruined aqueduct ahead of us. I wondered if the modern Lavalduc is a contraction of Le Viaduc? There are only three complete arches now and the pillars continue off into the distance. It was quite weird just seeing this out in the middle of nowhere!

We took a short detour to peer inside a ruined house right on the

waterside. It had remarkably thick external walls with what looked like yellow sandstone around where the windows should have been. It looked like people had used the ground floor for dossing and there were plenty of broken beer bottles, but someone had painted this fun street art image too.

The lake was beautiful in the late afternoon sunshine. We later learned that it is artificially made salty for some industrial purpose, but we couldn't find out exactly why. I was surprised to not see any waterbirds at all although there were a few small finches flitting around. We also saw what we think was evidence of wild boar rooting around.

The island town of Martigues

Our host at Camping Neptune made a point of telling us that we should

Tunisian bakery in Martigues 

visit the nearby town of Martigues, nicknamed the 'Provencale Venice' because of its canals, docks and bridges. Martigues bridges the water route from l'Etang de berre out to the Mediterranean and is built on both banks as well as a central island. There are streets of pastel coloured houses, lots of small boats moored and a vibrant cafe culture with frequent North African influences. I was tempted to try a Couscous restaurant on the waterside, but as we were only visiting for a snack lunch and stroll about we chose to buy sweet cakes from a Tunisian bakery instead and ate them on a park bench in the shade.

There are two significant parks, one a traditional style tree lined grass space and the other, which covers the pointed end of the island, being modern looking - decked steps, tub chairs and with small fountains in shallow rectangular pools. The modern park was proudly opened by the Mayor in 2011. Also surprisingly modern, architecturally, are the large theatre and the massive Hotel de Ville (Town Hall).

A few sculptures dot Martigues. We both liked this Pecheur et

Pecheur et Ramendeuse 

Ramendeuse au debut XXieme siecle (Fisherman and Netmaker at the start of the 20th century) on the quayside. The pair were sculpted by Sebastien Langloys and installed in 2010.

An archaeological exhibition is tucked away in a tranquil Place and shows an uncovered street surface believed to date back some 2,500 years, to the Gaulois time, together with recreations of wattle and daub housing, pottery urns and other household goods. The whole scene covers the equivalent of a shop front and is behind glass so I couldn't get a good photo, but it was interesting to view. The town that became Martigues was apparently first built over an abandoned Roman settlement. We saw a plaque commemorating the 300th anniversary of the 1581 signing of an Act of Union by Jonquieres Ferrieres and this name is repeated all over the town for businesses, the main car park and street names.

Small boats moored at Martigues 

A Martigues street