Summer in France - day 13: Les-Maries-de-la-Mer and Aigues Mortes
It is barely 8:30 if we already have a ride of over an hour on it. We have some tourist spots on our schedule and want to be ahead of the big flow of tourists, with covid19 in mind, trying to avoid large masses. We are also worried about the increasing number of infections in our home country about which we are receiving news.
We are even too early to visit the local church that opens at 8:30pm.
Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer is a coastal town, but also a place of pilgrimage. Two Mary's, Marie Jacobé and Marie Salomé, the women who were present at Jesus' crucifixion and visited him at the grave after his death to embalm the body, would have arrived here by boat and lived their further lives. Mary Magdalene, Jesus' alleged wife, would also be docked here. She would then have moved on to preach the gospel.
.JPG)
The first two Mary's were buried here, too. Later they built a church, dug up the remains and got a special grave in a niche of the church. (Above the altar you see that niche.)
But it's still very early when we get there. The pictures in the church were taken a little later.
