We topped up the gas and left for Sainte Marie de la Mar, a sea side town with an Aire not that far away, only about 30k. We had a good journey through the vineyards, rice fields and horse riding centres. The Camargue is a great place for cycling, lots of cycle lanes and very flat! As we drove into the town we spotted a large gravel car park right by the sea wall with a few motorhomes in it, so we popped in for a look. Didn’t get a great feel, there were a couple of gypsy caravans, white vans, loads of kids, washing lines everywhere etc! So we continued into the town which looked very nice, lots of restaurants and cafés, shops etc all very bright and clean BUT it was literally full of gypsy’s, everywhere you looked there were white vans, caravans etc, all along the sea front, in every carpark and in any spot big enough to park on. As we edged our way through the town towards the Aire all you saw were travellers staring at you, I felt like a stray gazelle wandering through a pride of lions! We reached the Aire which was fairly full, and decided to make a run for it and headed as quickly as possible out of town. We stopped at the car park again and looked at the maps and books again, settling on a campsite about 20k away. Just as we were leaving we saw three Police vehicles including two riot vans leave a campsite just up the road!
It turns out that the name of the town means the three Maries, and was named after Mary Magdalene and her two relatives named Mary who after the resurrection left the Holy land and are supposed to have landed here. They had with them a servant called Sara, who the gypsies have taken as their patron saint, as she was dark skinned and each May on the 24th they all meet here! Hundreds of they come from all over, mostly France, Spain and Italy but also as far as Hungary. They hold a procession carrying the statue of Sara into the Mediterranean before holding a massive celebration. You couldn’t make it up if you tried!
Anyway we found the camp easily enough, and as we parked by the reception the owner came out and explained they were having lunch so we could go in, choose a pitch and come back after 2pm. So we did, found a great pitch, large enough to put Bella in across it! After lunch we booked in and found the pools were open so spent the afternoon in and around the pools. They were a little chilly but it was so hot it was nice and refreshing!
Intending to go out on the bikes tomorrow and explore the area, then it’s Lynns birthday on Saturday! Should be fun!!
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