A Roman Theatre and a Stark Landscape

We rented a car this last weekend, late Saturday afternoon, so we got to keep it until Monday afternoon.  That meant two road trips, one with kids, one without.  Both were really cool, in very different ways.

We rented a smaller car this time, and brought the computer to show a film.  That meant Ed and I got to chat for the 1 hour plus that we travelled.  Always a bonus, chatting with one’s significant other!  We pulled into the city of Orange just before noon, found parking near the Theatre and set off in search of lunch.  Not so easy in the coldest spell of winter in a tourist city.  After a few stops and starts we finally found a restaurant and settled in for a mid-day meal.  There were omelettes and crepes, so all of us (evem the vegetarians) were easily pleased.  Ed and I shared some wine, the kids each had their favorite drinks and we generally had a merry time.  Dessert crepes and two coffees later we headed out to brave the cold. 

The Theatre of Orange is acclaimed to be the best preserved Roman Theatre in Europe. We bought our tickets, stepped in, and were immediately wow-ed by the huge-ness of it all.  The stage is massive, rising to what looks like the height of the seating.  There are multiple entrances to the stage, statuary displayed and generally a feeling of enormity.  The kids were not too interested in the audio-guides, but quickly found their way to the multi-media presentations behind the seating areas.  The theatre is still used today to stage operas, plays, even rock concerts.  There were three different presentations, the first of a famous opera star speaking with a 3-D image of himself about opera, the second a documentary of rock shows from the 1970’s, and the final a performance demonstrating on-stage and back-stage through 3-D projections.  In the last there was a love scene in which the actress turns the two potential lovers into dogs in a puff of magical smoke.  Let’s just say that each boy was captivated by a different one.  Can you guess who liked which?

After a short meander longer through the upper tiers of the theatre we were all ready to head into warmer venues.  There was a museum across the street in which we spent a very short bit of time, realizing that we were simply ready to turn around and head home.  A nice family day had by all.

The next morning, as soon as we dropped the boys off at their respective schools, Ed and I hopped back into the car.  Today we were heading off to the Camargues, again in the midst of the coldest spell in Europe in at least five years.  The Camargues are a wetlands area, very sparsely populated and very barren-looking.  They are a haven to migrating birds, with the special draw (for non-birders) of flamingoes in their natural habitat.  With the weather as cold as it was we had no idea if we would see anything, but we thought that it would at least be worth exploring to see if the boys would enjoy a hike. 

A few minutes south of the highway you enter the Park.  There is a bit of farmland dotting the road, primarily rice and other low-lying crops.  And soon you come to the first view of the marshes.  They are vast and, with the cold spell, they were frozen.  Ed and I felt as if we were back in Wisconsin.  Ed even threw a few boulders to see if the ice would break.  It did, of course.  However, no wildlife, not even grazing cattle. 

We drove on, stopping and starting at various intervals just to see if those sticks poking out of the water might actually be a heron or some other water bird.  And then we saw them.  Behind a large cluster of reeds, and huddled together in a tight pack, a big group of flamingos.  Probably at least twenty of them.  They were quite far away, but there was no doubt that they were flamingoes.  I could have turned around then, I was so happy to have seen them in the wild.  We watched them for a bit, fluffing their feathers, and huddling closer for warmth. 

Moving on, we stopped off at a trailhead.  There was a small museum/exhibit explaining the wildlife that lived in the Camargues, and some of the reasons for the habitat being so changeable.  We explained to the woman in the accueil that we would be back in a bit to purchase our trail pass for the other set of trails, but that we wanted to get out to see things first.  She just smiled and waved us on.  And then we jumped back outdoors onto the trail. 

It was SO COLD!  I have always been a whimp when it comes to cold, but we were in -6 degree highs in a very blustery, damp marsh.  The flamingoes had it right.  Every time we arrived in an observation shelter we huddled together, barely peeking at the birds huddled on the opposite shore (a sort of buzzard, I think).  The trail traversed four eco-systems: wetland, prairie, woodland, and salt marsh.  In the winter the water is all subterranean, so there is a residue of salt on the ground.  In the prairie we saw the tiniest of birds, fluffed up so large we had to laugh.  And on our last stretch of trail we saw a badger cross the trail and then dive into its den.  As we passed by its tunnels you could see it flick its tail as it dug in deeper. 

We didn’t even bother going back into the accueil.  We hopped right back into our cozy little car, had a snack to tide us over and decided to take the rest of the trip as a driving tour.  We found the other trailhead, waved hello, and drove on.  We drove past the salt flats, where the trucks were actively scooping up loads of fresh salt and trucking them out to the usine.  We then turned down a single-lane road to the beach at the very end, where the Rhone pours into the Mediterranean.  It was so windy that the birds could not take off in flight.  There were several lone flamingoes, which made me worry and several other water birds, including swans, either squatting on the ice, or swimming in the few patches of water that they could find.  There were gusts of feathers flying.  The water to the right of the road (the west) was totally brown with sediment and choppy from all of the wind.  The east side of the road was more protected and so had a clearer consistency and a much smoother look to it.  And when we got to the end, to the so-called beach, there was sheet after sheet of blowing sand.  There even was a camper-trailer that had blown over.  It really looked almost desert-like, and definitely like we had reached the ends of the earth.

Ed commented as we finally started to head back that he had never been in a place that had been more unpredicatable.  Just as we would adjust to a certain terrain, a new eco-system would come into place.  Each one seemed as rough as the last.  I mentioned earlier that there are a few people who live in the Camargues.  They are primarily farmers and ranchers.  On the road we took out there were a number of ranches, a few with cattle actually out and about.  There was a huddle of horses here and there, and a pack of bulls.  As we got closer to the highway there were several sheep farms.  And the only people we saw were the people in their cars or trucks. 

We will definitely go back with the kids, but sooner rather than later.  The Camargues, in addition to being famous for their winds, are also famous for their mosquitoes.  I think we will head there after the February break, so as to catch the still-wintering birds, but not the insects that go along with their environs.  I still have the stark, almost Salvador Dali-like landscapes etched in my brain, as well as a bit of chill still in my bones.  Maybe the two go hand-in-hand.  The Camargues are not a place I will quickly forget.