Just up the coast from Sète is the medieval city of Aigues-Mortes, built by King Louis IX between 1240 and 1248 (he was canonised after his death, becoming Saint Louis – the ultimate medieval performance bonus). You can walk all the way around the ramparts, a distance of just over 1.6km enjoying panoramic views across the Camargue wetlands, salt marshes and the red-tinted salt lakes that surround the town. We didn’t do the full circuit, it was too hot – we went for a cold beer instead. King Louis went on two Crusades in the Middle East, both spectacular failures – he was taken prisoner during the first and died of dysentery during the second. Funny, Donald Trump keeps insisting the Middle East is someone else’s problem – history suggests it’s rarely that simple.
