Monday Sept 30th

After finishing the morning session photographing the horses in the marshes we headed west up the coast. We would return to the Camargue at the end of the week for the bull festival at Aigues-Mortes. For now our first destination was the seaside town of Sete. Our daughter Erin had spent three weeks here as an exchange student and enjoyed it so much she's been after us for years to get there. Three canals converge at the town so it bills itself as the Venice of France. It is certainly charming, and it is certainly easier to get around by boat than by car, but Venice? Ummmm...   I'm afraid not. We walked around for a few hours, had a glass of wine beside the canal, and soaked up the atmosphere.

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You can see that the overcast sky of the morning had broken up and we would have loved to wait for sunset but our B&B was in a medieval hilltop town, Olargues, and we wanted to get there before dark.

This would be a trip back in time. The town, as we see it today, was pretty much built by the end of the 1200s, One could in theory, drive in the town, and we did so to unload the luggage, but it was better to walk, or should I say climb, around the town than try to drive, much less park.

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Tuesday October 1st.

Olargues would be our base for the rest of the week. We had some villages, some castles, and a couple of larger towns to check out. They were all within an hour or so of home. The sky that day had a high thin overcast all day which softened the light for photography. No harsh shadows.  So off we went. First place was the village of Roquebrun.

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I guess I can't help myself when I see reflections.

Then it was just a short drive over to Minerve, a town built on the edge of a gorge. No reflections here!

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This gravel road/river bed actually had a name so Gladys thought it was okay to take us there. It was a little unnerving. But it turned out fine. Besides, it was a rental car.

We had a nice lunch of steak frites on top of the cliff.  _8505980 (2) _8506034 (2) _8506077 (2)-Pano-2

Back to Olargues for supper.

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