In the daytime, Aigues-Mortes is a different picture. The streets brimming with tourists charmed by Camargue are often difficult to get through. We’re forced to follow the nonchalant pace of the lazy strollers. Excellent shops, a huge sweet shop where any level-headed child would go crazy, nice restaurants and noble old stone monuments to visit: the church of Notre-Dame des Sablons, Constance tower, the ramparts (we took about an hour and a half to walk round), the Chapelle des pénitents gris, Chapelle des pénitents blancs, and let’s not forget all these magnificent old houses lining the cobbled streets.

			Aigues-Mortes

After a trip to the market and some time in the shy sunshine, we eat lunch in the square and then leave the old walls and their memories behind to head back towards Palavas-les-Flots, reaching it late afternoon. The wind has picked up and the little multicoloured pennants on the fishing buoys flap about in the port. Right at the end of the River Lez, which cuts the town in two, the sea heaves and splutters as evening falls. Lights switch on and the 45 metres of the Phare de la Méditerranée lighthouse watch over the little church of Saint-Pierre, lit up like it was Christmas. The contrast is striking!

			Canal du Rhône à Sète and Palavas-les-Flots