We Hang Out With the Gypsies

    



"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain

For over 100 years, gypsies from all over Europe have been coming together in the small Mediterranean town of Saints Maries de la Mer to honor their patron saint, Sarah, and to celebrate the gypsy lifestyle. 

Saint Sarah's origins are a little unclear... the crypt of the church at Stes Maries holds a stone dedicated to Mithras, a Zoroastrian god of just decisions that the Romans adopted, and then also the site is dedicated to the Marys (magdalene and Salome) who found the empty tomb in Jerusalem and then were mysteriously set adrift on a boat from Alexandria Egypt to die but drifted to France instead.  Sarah might be their Egyptian servant or she might be the Frenchwoman who welcomed them ashore.  So... one story is the gypsies adopted her to prove they were truly Catholic... with a "we love strong women" twist. Or... because she has dark skin... it's felt she might represent the goddess Kali, as gypsies are originally from the Punjab.  We will just never know.  Anyway the gypsies have long congregated at Stes Maries and the local non gypsies have not always liked it and apparently about a hundred years ago they formalized her festival as possibly a way to focus and minimize the time gypsies showed up in town. 

But first...we drove from Sassari to the ferry, crossed to Corsica, hung out in Bonifacio for awhile and then drove up the coast to our ferry in Ajaccio, stopping along the way at Filitosa, a wonderful Stone Age site with carved caves, dolmens and a beautiful landscape. Lots of ancient history here in Corsica!

After our overnight ferry ride, we drove through the beautiful Provençal countryside, stopping at Mas de la Dame, a really good winery. We bought a couple of wines and then drove to Les Baux, an old hill town with a ruined castle. We had a nice hike to some huge bauxite mines, carved in the last century. We had a picnic of charcuterie, cheese, olives and bread amongst some olive trees with a gorgeous view of the countryside. We then drove to Arles, the town in which Vincent Van Gogh painted some of his most famous artwork, where we would stay the next three nights. 

Arles is a marvelous town, not too big and not many tourists after 5pm. There are lots of Roman buildings, still in use today, such as the big Amphitheater and Theater. We had a nice dinner of soupe de poisson, fois gras, and a fillet of rouget, a local fish. 

Arles is the town where Vincent Van Gogh painted some of his greatest works. 

The next day was the festival and we arrived in Saintes Maries around 11. We were to meet some friends of ours, Joachim and Maria Koch, who we met on our Aranui trip and were vacationing nearby. When we got to town, there were several gypsies playing music and dancing. If you've ever heard the group The Gypsy Kings, then you know the kind of music I'm talking about. Fast guitar strokes with a Spanish beat and usually sung in Spanish. While the men sang and played, women (and sometimes men) would dance a flamenco like step. We got the feeling, although there were several tourists there, that this was done for them and not for us. But we were tolerated, in fact they all smiled at us as everyone was really having a great time. 

We met Joachim and Maria and, before the procession had a nice lunch of oysters and grilled sardines. Yum!!  We then headed to the beach to get a good view of the procession, as they leave from the church, go through town, then go to the beach and walk into the sea with the statue of Saint Sarah.  The famous white Camargue horses (the Camargue is the region we were in, the marshy area where the Rhone comes into the sea) and their riders, Les Guardians, lead the way. The horses and riders are quite a beautiful sight, especially when they are prancing around the beach. Les Guardians carry long wooden poles, with a two pronged metal spike on the end, used, I'm presuming, to poke the big bulls that are raised here. 

The procession went by....the horses, priests, gypsies, the statue of Saint Sarah, and hundreds of locals and tourists. Everyone walks down to the sea and enters it, knee deep, including the horses. Then they all walk back to the church. 

The gypsies all come in their camper vans and trailers, camping out over the few days. As we walked by their parking areas, many were gathered together, playing music, cooking meals and talking. This is a great reunion, as the gypsies come from all over Europe. 

The second day of the festival is dedicated to the two Marys and is much less for the gypsies and more of a Catholic event. So, as we drove to town, we saw hundreds of camper vans leaving. Indeed, the second day was much less interesting and, frankly, we could have missed it.   But it was wonderful just driving around the Camargue on the small roads, seeing the white horses, flamingos and other wildlife. The whole area is just a few feet above sea level and you have to wonder what will happen here as the sea rises over the coming decades.