One of the highlights of our trip has been the Fête Votive à Aimargues. Votive festivals are held all over Provence and are traditionally organised by the village to pay homage to their patron saint. They include, fairground attractions, bull racing (Course Camarguaise), an opportunity to eat together, music and dancing. The program was advertised online, and we chose to go on the Thursday to go to the small well shaded Aimargues arena watch the course Carmaguaise and afterwards enjoy the fun of the fair. 

We got a little lost and arrived a couple of minutes after the start consequently missing the folk dancers but the main thing, we missed was the ‘entry’. That took us a while to find. Eventually we followed a young woman who too was late. We found our spot up on the bleachers and settled in to watch the action. In this ‘bull fight’ the bull is the star. They even get top billing on the program. The challenge for the ‘raseteur’ is to collect ‘attrubuts’ which are a ribbon tied between the horns, a pompom tied to each horn and string wound around the horns. Each of these ‘attrubuts’ has a monetary value. Usually there are only two raseteurs in the arena each with a team of five Tourneur- they distract the bull. (Better explanation)

We had a wonderful afternoon watching these amazing athletes. Later we saw the cowboys race the bulls through the street and then we went to the fair, had a drink and enjoyed the music. All in all, a fabulous time. 

Aigues-Mortes literally means dead waters. With 12000 years of history, its story is long and convoluted, but the one constant is salt, and it is still mined today. The fort was built in the Middle Ages by a French king wanting a clear passage for his crusaders. It is a remarkable preserved walled city.

Our week in the Camargue was over and we were headed east towards Saint Remy de Provence. We had five hours to fill so we decided to head to Carrières des Lumières near Les Beaux de Provence, or as Ms Google describes, ‘Less Boo deh P..C E . Her pronunciation might be off but her directions are pretty good…might be a bit late at times but we work around that. The closest park was one kilometre away and in 36degree° we decided we would come back. Anyhow, that was a lesson learned. We need to get there early!!! 

OK where to next? Lunch!! John decided Eygalières has some good reviews. He reads stuff!!! He even remembers stuff. What did we have for lunch…he remembers and luckily, I take the photos and often prove him right. Or should that be…confirm his righteousness!!! We had tapas and chose three. They were good. 

There were still a couple of hours to kill. Let’s check out some lavender….. Abbey Senanque is very famous for its lavender fields and just forty-three minutes away. All up, one hour thirty-eight minutes plus five minutes for taking photos and twenty minutes for getting lost and renegotiating our route…we should arrive right on four. We arrived…OMG … the queue!!! I decided to just tough it out and just drive in and there were spaces, not many but they were there. Anyhow we were not there to see the Abbey, just take a photo and so we did and then drove back to Saint Remy. It was four thirty and we had the code and Annise was there to meet us and show us around. Our accommodation was excellent, John has his 51 Pastis and Nyon olives and he picked up prawns, avocado and a Cassis white at the local supermarket for dinner. All was good in the world.