May 26: Aigue-Mortes

It may seem to fit in with my former line of work, but the name of this town actually means "low water". It was founded in 1246 by Louis IX to be the first French port on the Mediterranean Sea, and served as the launching point of his two Crusade expeditions, the first to Cyprus in 1248 which turned disastrous in a storm leading to the capture and subsequent ransom of a lot of his soldiers, and the 2nd to Tunis where Louis IX died of diarrhea (too bad slaughtering people due to religion didn't get thwarted then and there). His son later constructed the walls for protection and the town was quite prosperous until the accumulating silt deposition from the nearby Rhône river isolated it from the Mediterranean. Thanks to that, Aigue-Mortes retains much of its medieval appearance, instead of being built up and around as most other cities of medieval origin have been.

Here was our approach to the city:

From the ramparts, looking out on the salt plains outside the walls (the salt production facility isn't too far outside the frame), and looking down on the roofs of the medieval city:

The building that was originally a lighthouse was turned into a prison, which in the 16th century held the Catholic-resistant French protestants (Huguenots). You can see in the pictures that on each floor was a hole through which food and water was conveyed to the inmates, as from a well (minimizing risk of assault to guards, not to mention the 30-some step stair-climb between floors). Women were held on the top floor, including a woman named Marie Durand who was taken prisoner as an 18-year-old with her family and spent almost 40 years imprisoned. She etched, "RESISTER" (resist!) into the stone that lines the central opening on that floor.

The entrance to the tower, complete with moat: