Aigues Morte, St Maries de la Mere & Barbentane

First an apology - as we have not yet worked out how to edit this blog on the iPad there are lots of errors - please excuse! On the autoroute taking us to Grabels I was surprised to find how it snaked around the hilly countryside and regularly rose to 1100+ meters height. When we arrived at Grabels we were warm for the first time in France! The temperature was 16 degrees at 8PM. That was to change after our first night in Barbentane. From Grabels we decided to revisit the old walled town of Aigues Morte, in the Famous Camargues region. Last time we were there we had happened upon the weekend of the running of the bulls - tres exciting. This time it was the "running of the tourists" Well, it was a Saturday and in the school holidays. We would like have taken a boat trip on the canals which crisscross this area but time was against it. So we drove about 30km to the coastal village of St Maries de la Mer. This is/was a quaint fishing village but again on this day taken over by us tourists. We declined the opportunity to attend a bullfight at the seaside arena. I managed to get more urgently needed diesel before we drove to our next Gite at Barbentane an historic village 10km frm Avignon. At first we passed through very flat country with horses, bulls and water everywhere - this the Camargues. Then we followed the Rhone river north. The gps again failed us. It turned out that it was a block and a bit out. The house is situated on the outskirts of the village and not exotic but has everything we need. The next morning we woke to strong cold winds which have continued so far here - could this be the infamous Mistral? More tonight - time to explore the village.