Hunting For Pink Flamingos!! |
Ah-Ha! Here they are! |
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| Aigues-Mortes from the outside |
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| Heading into the walled city of Aigues-Mortes |
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| The Church in Aigues-Mortes |
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| Nathan and Adam climbed the wall but the door to the top was locked! |
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Very Cute Cafe in Aigues-Mortes
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Our landlord suggested that we drive south after seeing Nimes and Pont Du Gard to take a look at Aigues-Mortes, the "Place of Dead Water" which was constructed in the 1200's by Louis XI to protect important people such as Popes, Kings etc... The sea was much closer back then and has now subsided 3 miles - the salt marshes are the only things that remain between this walled city and the sea. The walls were amazingly constucted and truly surrounded an entire city which is still functioning today. There are shops, bakeries, patiseries, residences, an area where old French men play Bocci (and were playing - my camera battery died though so I didn't get any pix of that!) Although we drove by it on Saturday, the sun was setting and we wouldn't have been able to tour it much, so, we went back on Sunday to look around. Unfortunately, however, a lot of the shops were closed on Sunday - bummer. Some of the more touristy ones were open AND one shoe store! Guess who got some new black boots --- Italian boots to wear in France :) The rest of the family was very patient as I tried to converse with the sales lady to determine just the right pair and the right size (size 8.5 in the U.S. is size 38 in Europe!) At another shop, we had fun trying on various hats/berets etc....-Nathan and Andy looked very nice in a couple of them but refused to be photographed or to buy the hats!
On the way to Aigues-Mortes, and the surrounding areas along the sea, we pass lagoonas (as pronounced by Mr. and Mrs. Boisson) where Pink Flamingos are wondering about! I don't think I've ever seen one live and in person aside from maybe a couple at the zoo - so this was very exciting for all of us - we were thinking about Annie Mallamaci who had loved Flamingos since she was born, during our hunt for pictures! Right now, they are not very pink as the shrimp that they eat give them their pink color. Since it is winter, shrimp is not easy to come by for the poor flamings so their vibrant pink color is a little muted right now, we hope to see more of them when they are full of shrimp --- and Pink again!
We are hoping to receive our modem today or tomorrow - it took me this long - 3 days, to be able to post pix on this blog due to the slow or non-existant internet connection. The kids' Dell computers seem to do better with the WIFI here, not great, but better than my Toshiba! - More later - B
Hey Beth,
ReplyDeleteI was going to write something about Annie, but saw that you already had as I read further. Of course we knew about the shrimp giving them their pink color, since she did a research project on flamingos (in fifth grade, maybe). Thank you for thinking of her, I will share your good wishes.
And I'm so glad you broke down and got some BLACK boots!
Love,
Tracey
Hi Beth and fam-
ReplyDeleteHappy to see you all made it to o-la-la safe and sound and are having the adventure of a lifetime! It's great to see you all seeing new places and learning new things as a family, together. Thanks for the pics, keep up the good blogging!
Megan :)