The while-we-wait-for-river-cruises photo quiz

[notamermaid]

30 minutes ago, dogs4fun said:

According to Google, Camargue is 57.7 miles from Aix (via car).

According to CA, the city is 1.5 to 2 miles via car.

I admit I am confused, just thought Camargue is a relatively watery area.

39 minutes ago, Canal archive said:

Notamermaid keep checking that area. CA

Alas, got to make my boss happy. Got an e-mail asking me for parts of my project. No time to procrastinate...

 

notamermaid

 

Edited May 4, 2021 by notamermaid

[notamermaid]

Do you mean the Etang de Berre?

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

Does this help?

[notamermaid]

Now, that is a nice old church. Not sure that it helps, but I think I can spot a crenellated wall, so this place has fortifications. Perhaps a short roam around after dinner...

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

Sharp eyes there Notamermaid. CA

[jpalbny]

Wow that was a challenge! 

 

Finally found it. Here's the full view of the sign, from Google street view.

 

 

And a street view roughly corresponding to CA's picture. 

 

 

Now who can find the city? Looks like a neat place to visit.

[ljandgb]

Well, a google search of both the restaurant or the intersection shown will give you the town, but I'd've never found it on my own.  The name of the town translates into "dead treble" which still leaves me scratching my head on the clues given.

[vada_9]

Thank you all for your kind words and wishes. And yes it is Mothers Day here downunder next Sunday.

[notamermaid]

This must be one of the most amazing places I have ever seen! I have to see this live, I found it by way of the crenellated wall in the background via two intermediate places. It is like King Arthur is going to turn up any minute. Oh my!

 

According to the German Wikipedia the name means dead waters, via Latin. I can see that alright, a town in the marches at a former lagoon. A morbid name even!

 

I shall be going to bed dreaming of Provence. I have been to Pont du Gard and Arles, so am not easily impressed, but this place...

 

notamermaid

 

 

[gnome12]

Aigues-Mortes, Rhone River. It showed up in a thriller I read many years ago, but I can't find it or the author.

[jpalbny]

Aigues mortes are the dead waters left behind when a river changes its channel.

 

So yes the city name literally means dead waters but I suspect the word "aigues" comes from the old Occitan language, which is much closer to Catalan, and not from modern French (where "waters" = "eaux"). Plus this name is from the 1200s, well before modern French came about.

 

Nowadays "aigu" in French means "acute" as in l'accent aigu, which threw me for a bit. Dead acutes? Scratching my head...

 

A Google search for the Occitan word for water comes up with aiga...so I think I'm on the right track with the Occitan language. Any Francophones who can help me with the etymology here?

 

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

46 minutes ago, jpalbny said:

Aigues mortes are the dead waters left behind when a river changes its channel.

 

So yes the city name literally means dead waters but I suspect the word "aigues" comes from the old Occitan language, which is much closer to Catalan, and not from modern French (where "waters" = "eaux"). Plus this name is from the 1200s, well before modern French came about.

 

Nowadays "aigu" in French means "acute" as in l'accent aigu, which threw me for a bit. Dead acutes? Scratching my head...

 

A Google search for the Occitan word for water comes up with aiga...so I think I'm on the right track with the Occitan language. Any Francophones who can help me with the etymology here?

 

 

Your analysis is very acute...  But my skills on this picture were obtuse

[notamermaid]

The English Wikipedia is quite good with this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aigues-Mortes

 

You are right about the connection Occitan - Catalan. Not sure what the Catalan expression could be but it will be closer (will have been closer) to Aigues. The Spanish language equivalent - as we know is relatively close to Catalan - would be las aguas muertas. Sounds closer indeed, but in modern Spanish the expression in singular mostly (la agua muerta) signifies a phenomenon at sea where a kind of whirl tugs at ships when waters of differing densities mix, or something like that (my Spanish is very rusty).

 

notamermaid

 

[ljandgb]

Well, that makes more sense than "dead treble!"

[gnome12]

3 hours ago, gnome12 said:

Aigues-Mortes, Rhone River. It showed up in a thriller I read many years ago, but I can't find it or the author.

The book is called Caravan to Vaccarès by Alistair Maclean.

[jpalbny]

2 minutes ago, gnome12 said:

The book is called Caravan to Vaccarès by Alistair Maclean.

 

He of "Where Eagles Dare"? 

[gnome12]

39 minutes ago, jpalbny said:

 

He of "Where Eagles Dare"? 

That's the one.

[Renmar]

17 hours ago, Canal archive said:

Your all going to deep. For instance one day walking from Aux en Provence but 1.5 to 2 miles by car. Plus it’s a city. It was also a damp day when we were there but is surrounded by the wet stuff. CA

Right off to my archive I have some tricky several hundred years old quandaries to try and solve.

What happened to the 1.5 to 2 miles by car or the one day walk, it sure send me down the wrong pad. As far as I can tell it is more than 75 miles from Aux-en-Provence and walking this distance would be a real task.

Where did your cruise ship dock or did you go there as a pre or post tour?

 

Theo

[Canal archive]

Well done all jpalbny you must have got it first. I’d better explain, we went there on a trip from our Rhône cruise, it’s a beautiful little ‘city’ compact and bijou, a walled city it is almost surrounded by water, sea, river, straightened rivers, you name all versions of water. It just happens I am also an Alistair McLain fan ( my uncle worked on ‘where eagles dare’ got a few stories about that, the first big film for Clint Eastwood). 
This is just through the entrance,

 

City centre.

 

 

 

city exit

 

 

I will have to find another conundrum for the future. CA

 

 

[Canal archive]

My husband has just reminded me that it was a bit of an arty place several small boutiquey shops. It’s a stones throw from the Med. My map app gave me the walking and driving times. I wish I was still in touch with my daughters friends father, would you believe he was a professor in ancient French (he is English)

There were other groups there but not sure if they were from cruises. CA

[notamermaid]

Professor in ancient French, that would be a nice person to meet. Even better would be a professor of old German joining that professor in conversation and me listening in. I very much enjoy comparing the middle versions of German, English and French - where do they meet, overlap, borrow, etc. Nice thing to read are the troubadours and trouveres songs' lyrics, comparing the original and transcription into modern French (and English). Medieval French was more phonetic than French today, the French forget to say too many letters for my liking ("o" is spelt eaux as in waters, seriously??) I find the literature period from say, Chrétien de Troyes (the "original" King Arthur story's author) to Geoffrey Chaucer and into 14th century German, fascinating. A bit weird, I know.

 

Anyway, @Canal archive thanks for rekindling my longing for Southern France, a Rhone River cruise I shall embark on hopefully sometime in the future.

 

notamermaid

  

[Renmar]

2 hours ago, Canal archive said:

My map app gave me the walking and driving times.

Maybe a new map app is on the horizon?? 😉

 

Theo

[Canal archive]

Must admit to not using google earth. CA

[Renmar]

Nobody playing this game anymore? I have not seen a posting on this tread since last Wednesday and there used to be multiple postings each day.

 

Theo

[jpalbny]

I assume gnome12 will call a wild card but it hasn't officially happened?