Russan 1

We picked up a hire car in Avignon on Saturday. Usual difficulties. We’d pre-booked the smallest option, which Hertz’s web site advertised as a Fiat Panda or similar but when we arrived we were offered a Chevvy Matiz. Dale recoiled in horror exclaiming ‘’Daewoo death trap’’ so we paid a bit extra for the Opel Corsa .

We are spending this week in one of the Richards’ cottages in a village called Russan that is very close to Nimes. When we arrived we discovered one very busy little village. Roads were blocked off and we couldn’t park in the ’centre ville’ per our instructions. This was because the centre ville was blocked off with barricades and there was a great commotion going on. What was keeping people endlessly entertained, besides copious amounts of alcohol, was what we will describe as ’bull taunting’.

Bull taunting seems firstly to require that the bull’s horns be taped up with some padding because heaven forbid that a human might actually get hurt by the bull. Secondly serve lots of alcohol and thirdly ramp up a few dance tracks that can blare away throughout the village. Fourthly you set up some barriers within the centre ville so that the taunters can escape from the bull they are taunting. I should explain that all these barriers consist of vertical railings that humans can squeeze through but that bulls can’t. Fifthly put a beat up old Peugeot 205 in the centre ville as well (we christened it ‘’Grease Lightnin’’ ) that can also act as an escape pod. Finally you let the bull loose, you throw things at the bull and every bogan within a 50km radius comes to test their bravery against the bull.

Go Grease Lightnin

On the bogan front, Dale claims that he’s never seen so many track suit pants in one confined space although I disagree I still think you see more at the Melbourne Motor Show.
Back to the Bull taunting. It occurred to us later that we are right in the middle of France’s bull fighting country. Bull fights are held at both Nimes and Arles and it seems that the season is getting underway. On the one hand this variation is less cruel because the bull didn’t look like it was physically hurt although it was clearly very agitated. On the other hand it must be about the softest way of testing yourself against a bull if that’s your thing.

Enough of bull taunting. The village is lovely and everyone gives you a cheery ‘bonjour’’. We’ve been out running two mornings around beautiful vineyards and up hills that give great views. The hills are beautiful but murder to run up. Russan is on the banks of the Gard River about 30 kms upstream from the Pont du Gard and at the start of the Gorges of Gardon.

The charming cottage we are residing in

View of Russan from across the Gard River

We canoed about 10 kms through the Gorges today and I wouldn’t describe it as a success. We were paddling downstream but against a fierce headwind for the second half. The river runs at a pretty fair pace so we enjoyed that even though it tends to mitigate against taking pictures because cameras might get wet. The scenery is also good, although it doesn’t have the magnificent castles you find along the Dordogne or the beautiful colours of Canada in autumn. We were just exhausted by battling the wind. We suspect that this might happen a bit as we had originally thought that we would paddle down to the Pont du Gard but Madame at the canoe hire place insisted that we check in with her about 8 kms upstream from the Pont to see how we were feeling. When we did and said that we were stuffed she promptly refunded some of our money to us, which was fantastic, but it does lead us to suspect that this head wind has been known to appear on other occasions.

Canoing on the Gard River

We’ve visited Nimes and Aigues-Mortes, both of which are very interesting. The amphitheatre at Nimes was built in AD 100 and is a most amazing solid and immense structure. Nimes also has a beautiful city park and a Roman Temple. You get to see a particularly naf 3D movie in the temple, all about the bravery of the Nimes people. Like the rest of France they seem to lose gallantly all the time (to quote a friend “Cheese-eating surrender-monkies”).

Nimes Arena (exterior)

Nimes Arena (interior)

Les Jardins de Fontaine in Nimes

I’d never heard of Aigues-Mortes before. It literally means dead waters and is in the Camargue near the mouth of the Rhone. It’s surrounded by marshes and salt pans and has great medieval town walls that are close to fully intact. You get a great view of the town and the surrounds as you circumnavigate the city wall.

Aigues-Mortes city wall

Aigues-Mortes within the city wall - note the trained trees