Aigues-Mortes

Louis IX needed a Mediterranean port under royal control and built one here from 1240 on marshland, sailing for the crusades from it in 1248 and 1270; the name means dead waters, after the lagoons. Silt closed the access and the sea is now several kilometres off, leaving a perfectly rectangular walled town of about sixteen hundred metres of wall with towers and gates, all of it walkable. The Tour de Constance held Protestant women prisoner for decades after 1685, one of them for thirty-eight years. Around the town, salt has been harvested since antiquity, and the evaporation ponds turn pink from the algae that flamingos also feed on.

History

Gaius Marius is said to have founded Aigues-Mortes around 102 BC, though no document supports it, and salt was worked here from the Neolithic, a Roman named Peccius giving his name to the Peccais marsh. In 791 Charlemagne raised the Matafère Tower in the marshes to protect fishermen and salt workers, and the area later belonged to the abbey of Psalmody, its people living in reed huts from fishing, hunting and salt. In 1240 Louis IX, wanting a Mediterranean port of his own for the crusades, obtained the site from the monks by an exchange of lands, freed the inhabitants from the salt tax, built a road across the marsh guarded by the Carbonnière Tower, and raised the Constance Tower where the Matafère had stood; in 1272 his son Philip III ordered walls around the whole town, a work that took another 30 years. Louis IX sailed from Aigues-Mortes on the Seventh Crusade in 1248 and on the Eighth in 1270 (Wikipedia, Aigues-Mortes).

What's there

• The complete ramparts - about 1,600 metres of wall walkable all round.
• The Tour de Constance - the tower that held Protestant prisoners for decades.
• The pink salt pans - evaporation ponds coloured by algae.
• The flamingos - birds feeding on the lagoons around the town.

When to go

April to June and September to October; the salt is harvested in late summer and the pans are pinkest in warm dry weather. Summer is very hot inside the walls with no shade.

Practical notes

The rampart walk is fully exposed to sun and wind. The town inside is largely shops and restaurants. Salt works visits are by tourist train or bicycle and charged separately.

Nearby

The Camargue lies east; Montpellier is west.

Key facts