Featured Traveling in Méjean

[Colinleath]

It feels like I found paradise on day three of this trip. It also feels like the bike may have been a mistake. This is a coastline to walk. But, problem solved, someone gave me a ride (they didn't understand my 'no' and my curiosity and desire for company kept me from insisting). So I'm with them now and may ride with them tomorrow to Lavit. And at the moment I'm on dunes near a wetland Saintes-Marie-de-la-Mer. Yes mosquitos but it's cool. It's not too bad.

They will stay up late looking at the moon and the sea.

I'm sort of hoping to get close to the site of Larzac, having already visited La Zad, Notre dames des Landes, but now i see that is further to the south and west.

So, not sure what happens next. This (near Méjean) is the nicest place I've been all year I think. Temperature-wise, peace-wise, interesting and beautiful places to explore, (rocky coastline with inhabited coves, ruined forts, remote rock huts for tenders of olive groves, towns accessible by passenger rail, ancient caves) good food, friendly people, pine groves to sleep in. Warm water to swim in. No thoughts of the multiple disasters happening elsewhere (forest fires, hurricanes, covid) at least until one of my new friends mentioned a covid issue (two of them could not be served by a beach side bar because they do not have the vaccine and corresponding health pass). And some climate change effects (no more snow in Lavit).

Calanque la Redonne (calanque = cove), two+ coves west, is perhaps more impressive than Méjean, it was like a 3-acre salt water swimming pool nearly fully enclosed by the rocky hillsides and the buildings built into them.

Two of my new friends run a restaurant part of the year and homestead the rest. The other is a fire fighter. I'm probably about 18-20 years older than them.

So, before i got picked up i was briefly wondering if i should just settle in between La Vesse and Méjean and figure out how to stay there long term. I would like to have a place i could invite others to stay.

A traveling community is another possibility. But that's not really being honest, I'm more of a hermit than that.

I did get a response from a potential nomadic OkCupid date in Marseille. And one of the organizers of velokarawane got back to me and he is looking at a house in Italy in October. Maybe I could meet him again. So those are some planned social possibilities. Which seem to be helpful in toning down the solitude/ transitoriness of travel relationships.

 

[Matt Derrick]

That picture of the bridge and water is awesome. Added to our featured threads section. Looking forward to seeing more posts from you in future!