Greetings From The South of France -
The Rhone River delta is large and on a map looks somewhat intriguing. Well, not intriguing enough to get us to make the 45-minute trip to see it until yesterday (Tuesday). The area is called the Camargue. The Rhone River, I believe, starts in Geneva, Switzerland and weaves on down to the Mediterranean (you can look it up). It’s in this area where this mighty river (if the Mississippi is mighty than the Rhone is mighty) reaches the sea and that the Port of Marseille is located. We counted them, so we can tell you the Port of Marseille has ten cranes used to load and unload ships, and yesterday there were four ships waiting to move into port.
Here’s what the tour guide book says about Camargue: “The Camargue’s subtle wetlands beauty makes it a worthwhile joyride for some, but it’s a take-it-or-leave-it sight for many.” We fell into the second category, with Marlene much more bored than I.
Camargue looks like the Florida Everglades and is described as “one of Europe’s most important wetlands”. There are rice fields, salt marshes/ponds, white horses, bulls and flamingos.
Let’s go to the photos! If you happen to ever get a detailed look at the area (Google), we took the short trip and went to Salin de Giraud, rather than further west to Les Saintes-Maries-de-laMer. The main route to Salin de Giraud includes a ferry across the Rhone. You see a photo of a second ferry going in the opposite direction of the ferry we were on, and a look down the Rhone to the sea. We got a couple of photos of piles of salt, which come from the marshes, which we also got a shot of. The town of Salin de Giraud really intrigued me, because of some large buildings of townhomes. So, I visited the city hall, which included a tourist office. I found that the plant on the edge of town on the river is a Solvay chemical plant. Solvay is a Belgian company that began around 1860 and came to Salin de Giraud in the early 1900s. Everything built was constructed by Solvay of red brick (highly unusual in the south of France). Solvay purchased a large rectangle of land across from the plant and constructed housing for their workers. They built about 12 block-long, three-story red brick townhome buildings with wide boulevards, and nearer the plant built about six three-story single-family homes for the managers. All of this housing had to be elegant in the early 1900s. The photo of the city hall is key, as the building was part of Solvay’s complex. Unfortunately, the buildings have not been kept up, but you can imagine how fabulous it was 100 years ago. By the way, it struck us that it was another example of better days for France. Generally, the French have not been able to keep up the brilliant architecture of their past and much of their construction since World War II is not very exciting. Meanwhile, we saw a couple of bulls grazing in a field on the edge of town, so we wanted you to see them (no flamingos were seen and we did not get photos of the white horses we saw).
In closing, a little about “skinny legs”. Since we arrived, we’ve continually been amazed at how many French women have skinny legs. It’s understandable in the case of very skinny women, but even women with average slim builds seem to have extremely skinny legs. We are unable to figure it out. It’s more than eating less. Believe me, American women who don’t eat much do not have legs this skinny. And, it is still amazing how many French women and men have either slim or very normal physiques, and how few overweight people you see. This is not the United States.
The Wilsons
