Visit Aigues Mortes in France

Visit Aigues Mortes in France The area around the medieval town of Aigues Mortes was purchased in 1240 by Louis the 9th of France. He bought it from the Monks of the—to give France its first toehold on the Mediterranean. At that time the coast was controlled by the Counts of Provence and the King of Aragon. A port on the Mediterranean was essential for Louis plans for a crusade. Today, Aigues Mortes is one of the best preserved medieval towns in southern France, 10 gates lead into the city and 15 towers offer strategic defense positions. It was laid out in a grid fashion which was unusual in those days most towns at the Middle Ages grew in a helter skelter fashion but Aigues Mortes was a well planned community and a fortress. The 120-foot tall tower of Constance which at one time a prison for the Knights Templar, during the 17th century, 100 Protestant women were held prisoner here, one woman Constance wouldn’t renounce her faith and she stayed incarcerated here for 38 years. The stones for the walls and the tower had to be hold in from great distances by barges. Aigues Mortes means Dead Waters with swarms of mosquitoes for which the place was notorious at one time. The workers were either bribed or forced to live in this remote area, the walls renowned by the guards who spent most of their tour of duty living within the towers and patrolling the Ramparts. Most citizens learned not to walk too close to the outside walls. Modern visitors find Aigues Mortes a charming place to visit. The adults relax over French pastries which to me are the best in all of France. Little children are attracted to the statues especially statues with fountains where they can splash to their hearts content and eat ice cream. Two girls seemed to delight in sharing their ice cream with a little boy probably their younger brother and you can read his lips as he says, “more”, or you can certainly understand his expression. The statues of Louis the 9th who built Aigues Mortes for the soul purpose of launching 1500 ships carrying 30,000 knights to free the Holy Land. Louis the 9th however was not blessed with good luck. On the first attempt to breast the Holy Lands from the hands of the infidels, he was captured and held for ransom. He tried again 15 years later and once again sailed from Aigues Mortes but this time an unusually severe heat wave cut short the last crusade and Louis died in Tunisia in 1270. Although Louis have not been successful Pope Boniface the 8th gave him an A for effort and canonized him 24 years later for his two valiant attempts to bring the Holy Land under Christian rule. The port from which Louis launched his ill-fated crusades ha over the centuries become isolated from the sea. Deposits of silk from the Rome river and its distributor have created a vast swamp known as the—today, colorful flamingos struck their stuff through the marshes looking for food and at times challenging each other. During the summer months as many as 300,000 African flamingos spend their summer vacation in this area. The—is a vast Aryan sanctuary hosting over 400 species of birds, Some are permanent inhabitants. Another stop here on their north-south migrations, the surrounding swamps provide nesting places and safety from predators and a number of species race their young here. Black cattle roam freely throughout the—the bulls are either bread for the bloodless bullfights or they’re shipped off to Northern France and Spain for the traditional Spanish Bullfights, not just birds and bulls but Europe’s last wild horses also found refuge here in the marshes of the— They are an ancient breed of horse from the grass lands of Mongolia, they’ve adapted to this wet environment, able to subsist on the salt grass of the marsh.