We headed off towards Avignon in hopes of being closer to Nimes and doing the last stages of France. The drive was about 2. The Camping Fontisson campsite was nice, but a little small and it took over an hour to get the van close to level in a space. We ended up lifting the back so far that there was plenty of space to crawl under the van.
Yet again we were too early in the year to use the pool as it was closed but we did enjoy using the mini golf, football pitch and Olivia enjoyed playing in the park and on the exercise equipment. The staff were very friendly and one of them even let Olivia drive the golf buggy. Its presence here ensured that Aigues-Mortes became an important port for many years until industrialisation made Marseille the go-to place and Aigues-Mortes became a much quieter place. As the seawater gets more concentrated, the brine shrimp in the water gorge on minerals and create the bright pink waters that make this landscape so strange to visit and very otherworldly.
Their pink bodies are a favourite food of Flamingos and give them their pink hue. We were able to see several small flocks of Flamingos on our tour as well as plenty that were just in the water feasting.
This audio guide was very informative but was not in sync with the train tour which does make it a little confusing. The train stops so you can have a brief climb up a salt mountain. The train also briefly stops at a mini-museum where you can see the tools used, and the different types of salt that they make on the site.
There are also several salt crystal sculptures. Olivia wanted to have a go at making her own salt marsh, so we found a great little experiment by Education. It was a really easy experiment to do with RV kitchen items and some mud and it works great. We assumed that we would not be able to visit it, but discovered by chance it was being shown in Provence. After driving on some typical French moon rock, or roads as they call them, we were shocked to discover we were in mountainous country, and that the incredibly busy car park was surrounded by rocks rather than art museums.
