Aigues-Mortes, Provence Vacations and Luxury Travel Packages
North-west from St Gilles, the D42 passes the Garons airfield and enters Nîmes, but first it is worth going west once more to visit Aigues-Mortes (the town of the dead waters).
From a distance, the town appears to rise out of the surrounding marshland - which originally gave it its name - as though it were the painted backdrop for a Disney cartoon. It was built almost from nothing as there was only a very tiny fishing village here when Louis IX came in the mid-thirteenth century. The king needed a Mediterranean port so that he could take his army on a crusade but, as France was fragmented, he did not have one until he found a fishing village nestling among the dead waters of the Western Camargue. The king built his port, and that is what we see today; it is virtually untouched, its ramparts are still complete and, since the population is less now than it was then, the village is still confined within them.
To walk the ramparts - especially if it is a walk taken at dawn or dusk - is one of the delights of Provence. It takes about 1 hour to make the journey, the walk taking the visitor over several gates, particularly on the seaward side, and past many towers. One of these is the Wick Tower, where a lamp burned, not, as you might suppose, as a beacon to ships, but as a constant source of fire for the lighting of the powder in cannon.
The Burgundian Tower has a much less attractive reason for its name. In the Hundred Years War, the Burgundians held the town and sided with the English in the fight for the French crown. In 1418, the Gascons laid siege to Aigues-Mortes, eventually gaining secret access one night and slaughtering the garrison to a man. Needing a quick solution to the problem of a pile of dead Burgundians and not wanting to pollute the near-stagnant waters around the town, the Gascons threw the corpses into this tower, pouring salt in on top of them to preserve them for the moment when they could arrange a more discreet burial.
Near the town's Old Port is the Constance Tower, separated from the main ramparts by a bridged moat. This massive structure, almost 180ft (55m) high, has been used as a prison on several occasions. A climb up the steps to the tower?s top is rewarded by a fine view over the town.
North of Aigues-Mortes, the visitor is on the road to Nîmes. But before reaching that town, stop off at Teillan Castle, near Marsillargues. This fine Renaissance chteau is actually a converted monastery. The out-buildings include a pigeon loft with over 1,500 nest holes and a rotating nest ladder. It is also worth visiting the source and bottling plant of Perrier Water, another of France's contributions to sophisticated society. Annual production of the naturally carbonated water now approaches 1,000 million bottles. Much of this output is exported, to the rest of Europe, North America, Australia and the Middle East.
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