Flamingos & Ocre

What an amazing weekend! Saturday we went to Camargue, a town known for its horses and bull fights, as well as other wildlife (ie. flamingos!) We woke up at 5 AM to catch a 6 AM bus going to Arles, which is where we had to switch buses. It was so dark and absolutely freezing when we arrived in Arles! (The weather has really started to turn here, no more 30 degree weather!) Luckily a nearby cafe was open and we were able to drink some hot tea until the next bus came. We were greeted by an extremely strong (and cold!) wind in Camargue. After making a quick stop at the tourism office to get some info, as we usually do in a new town, we headed to the trail that offers sights of lots of different kinds of birds. We were even lucky enough to see some flamingos, which was kind of cool since I don't think I have ever seen any in real life (not including the zoo) and apparently this is the only spot you can see them in all of Europe. So that was really cool! On the way back we walked along the beach, which was amazing. It had almost-white sand with lots of dunes. Although I have never been to PEI, this is what I imagine the beaches there to look like! Even though it was incredibly windy, we had such a great time walking back on this beautiful beach. The other cool thing was that since it was mid October and pretty chilly, we were basically the only ones on this huge beach, other than the odd horseback rider! It was really neat. After walking on the beach, we went into town because we had heard you could go on trail rides with the famous white horses of Camargue. We found a place and were all ready to go but at the last minute me and another girl decided not to go! (I forgot how much I really don't like horses...) My friends Hana and Christine still went though, and they had a nice time. Even though we had to wake up incredibly early, Camargue was totally worth it; I just loved the beach, as well as being one of the only people on it!

Sunday we took a trip with Georges (the man who organized the trips to Saint Tropez and Monaco) to the villages of Luberon. We visited three villages: Isle sur la Sorgue, Roussillon and Gordes. Isle sur la Sorgue was lovely; it had a really pretty river running all around the town, as well as several 'roues' (working water wheels) which were neat! There was an amazing market that had pretty much anything and everything: jewelry, clothes, toys, spices, meats, cheeses, antiques, etc. We spent pretty much the whole time just wandering through the market (they had lots of free samples... amazing!) Then it was off to Roussillon, a town know for its "Ocre" (I don't know if this is the same spelling in English) which is a special type of red-ish sand. The colors were so vibrant, it was really pretty. The town itself was also really pretty; lots of red stone buildings and cool lanterns. Great views from the town too! After Roussillon it was off to Gordes. Even though I know I would never want to live there, I think this was my favourite village. It's one of 20 or 30 in the region that is built on a 'colline' (hill), so the streets are quite narrow and quite steep. Everything in the town just looked so ancient and authentic... it was kind of hard to believe it was inhabited by modern day people! This town also had amazing views of the area, and you couldn't see any big shops, stores, markets etc. All you could see were houses, grass, mountains, etc. It just looked so natural and untouched. Because it was our last stop we didn't have a ton of time in Gordes but we spent our last 10 or 15 minutes just looking at this amazing view. It was really something.

Anyway, it's Monday and I'm now exhausted but it was totally worth it! It was a great weekend! Now I'm looking forward to Strasbourg, which I leave for on Thursday!