May 13, 2026 – Arles to Saint Gilles – 22 kms – Le Cours Hôtel

May 14, 2026 – Saint Gilles to Aigues Mortes – 28 kms – Agréable T2 apartment 

Gordon:  Yesterday we experienced what will probably be the most authentic “Camino day” of this pilgrimage.  We walked and cycled from Arles to Saint Gilles, which is the first day of the Chemin d’Arles.  And there were other pilgrims!  There were more than we had seen in the past, perhaps 20 to 30 of them.  We chatted with many, and had lunch, drinks or breakfast with a few of them.  It was great fun, and made us think that someday we should do another pilgrimage along a more popular route.

That said, this morning we parted company with other pilgrims and turned south towards the coastal city of Aigues Mortes.  It is unlikely that we will see another pilgrim until perhaps Carcassonne, and there will probably only be a handful.

The walk to  Aigues Mortes is a pancake flat traverse of the edge of the Camargue, as the delta of the Rhône River is known.  It is known for bullfighting (without killing the bull), a particular breed of white horses, … and flamingos.  

I was walking along the towpath of a canal, now a paved bike path, when a break in the bordering trees revealed scores of flamingos in a lake about 200 metres away.  It’s a sight to stop you dead in your tracks.  The area contains a large number of brackish lakes which attract thousands of flamingos from the Spring to the Fall.  It seems reasonable to expect flamingos in Africa, where I believe the Camargue flamingos winter, but they are an exotic sight in Europe.

The other surprising sight of the day is the town of Aigues Mortes.  It is a walled medieval city that rises from the flat delta just a few kilometres from the sea.  Why was such an impressive fortification built in the middle of a swamp?

The history of Aigues Mortes is interesting.  The King of France did not actually own any land on the Mediterranean Sea in the 13th century.  The Benedictines did, however.  Looking for a port along that coast Louis IX traded land elsewhere in France for the land that became Aigues Mortes.  Louis led the seventh (1248) and eighth (1270) crusades from here.  The 1270 crusade was the last for Louis IX, as he died later that year of typhus off the coast of Tunisia.  He later became a saint.

Aigues Mortes is completely encircled by walls that are in a remarkable state of preservation / restoration. There are also a number of towers and gates, including the rather unusual Tour de Constance. It is the highest of the towers and we could see it at a distance of 10 kms as we approached the city.
Aigues Mortes is a popular tourist destination. Today was some sort of holiday (the third in the 15 days that we have been in France!) so parts of the town were packed with tourists. Putting on her special education hat, Ruth seized upon the visit as a desensitization opportunity for me. I was able to spend an hour within the town walls without bolting for the swamps. At this point I am optimistic that I should be able to visit the tourist Disneyland of Carcassonne in a few weeks without requiring medication.