The Tarasque of Tarascon
You will find traces of it everywhere in the city of Tarascon, but also in the rest of the Camargue. The Tarasque is an animal well known in the folklore of Provence. It was a kind of dragon with six legs, with an ox torso and wearing a turtle shell. Quite an original crossbreed, but quite frightening in case of an encounter, you will agree. The terrible beast haunted the marshes around Tarascon and sometimes took refuge on the rock which today shelters the imposing castle of the city. From there, it would watch for lost travelers and then take them to the river to drown them. It is probably an allegory of the whims of the Rhone, which regularly overflowed and decimated men, herds and crops.
According to the legend, the animal was mastered in 48 by Saint Martha who tied it with her scarf to walk it in the streets of the city. Unfortunately, the locals who had suffered so many losses because of the monster slaughtered it without mercy.
Texts about the Tarasque can be found in the book La Légende dorée, written by Jacques de Voragine in the 13th century, but the myth is certainly much older.
The golden goat of Saint-Rémy
With the golden goat, even more than with the Tarasque, we enter the domain of the magical and the fabulous. Here we are talking about treasures! Heaps of gold, precious stones, cups and chalices, plundered in the region by the Saracens, during nearly 250 years. For this animal, all made of gold, from its horns to its hooves, including its long coat, would guard the treasures abandoned by the Arabs when they fled Provence. For Frédéric Mistral, the goat would haunt the Val d'Enfer, in the Baux valley, for others, it would watch from the top of the mausoleum of the Antiques... whatever the case, if you decide to follow it to steal its goods, by a night of full moon, know that others have tried before you. We never saw them again!
While legends of golden goats can be found in many provinces, these stories are always related to the Saracen occupation. A treasure expert explained to us that these legends probably come from the habit that these warriors had of transporting their gold in goatskin bags. Over the centuries, many people claim to have seen the mythical animal. Many, convinced that a real fortune was waiting to be discovered in the area, embarked on incredible explorations of this mysterious region, full of caves and valleys. But so far, the golden goat has managed to thwart their plans and keep its secrets.
The House of Nostradamus
Let's stay in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence to discover a character who, even today, is the subject of much ink and does not fail to inflame the imagination: Michel de Nostredame, better known as Nostradamus. This apothecary, astrologer, a little magician, was born in Saint-Rémy in 1503. His house still exists, at number 6 of the rue Hoche, a narrow street in which even Mistral has difficulty in squeezing through. Only a small plaque, affixed above the entrance, reminds us that the man some consider a prophet was born there. But let's be clear, nothing is... clear in the famous prophecies, which are a collection of quatrains, grouped in centuries, announcing the major events, often catastrophic, that await humanity, until the year 3797.
One of Nostradamus' predictions made a great impression in his time. Indeed, one of his quatrains (the thirty-fifth of the first centurie) was quite close to the tragic death of King Henry II in June 1559. As a result, the notoriety of the astrologer was assured.
Today, more than ten thousand books have been published on the subject, trying to translate the famous quatrains into clear language. Ten thousand works and almost as many interpretations. Nostradamus died on July 2, 1566, at the age of 62, in Salon-de-Provence. He was buried in the church of the Cordeliers. It is said that when the sans-culottes opened his tomb to desecrate his remains in 1793, they discovered a skeleton with a copper plate on its chest announcing the exact date of this desecration. His remains were finally recovered and taken to the collegiate church of Saint-Laurent, in Salon-de-Provence.
Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer
Between sky and sea lies Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. It is a village where the sweetness of life is a real concept. A pretty seaside resort which summarizes, along its paved streets, its beautiful houses with white facades and its typical restaurants, all the spirit of the Camargue and its gardians. But Les Saintes-Maries is also an important place of pilgrimage and more particularly for the travellers. The tradition tells that it is there that Marie-Jacobé, Marie-Salomé and Marie-Madeleine, abandoned by the Romans in a boat without sails nor oars, were pushed by the currents and perhaps by a divine breath. In the gypsy version, the three Marys were welcomed on the beach by Sarah who became their servant. In another version, Sarah came from Palestine with the three women and many Christians.
Some historians claim that the cult of the Marys is in fact only the transposition by the Church of a pagan cult dedicated to three mother goddesses of fertility. But, a word of advice, don't go trumpeting this in the midst of the thousands of pilgrims who gather every year on May 24 and 25 throughout the city.
The Alyscamps
To the south-east of the city of Arles, on the ancient Roman road, the Via Aurelia, is a very old necropolis. At first a pagan burial place, then a Christian one, the Alyscamps, which means Champs-Élysées in Provençal, became very famous from the 4th century onwards. Countless people wanted to be buried near this place which witnessed the martyrdom of Genest, an Arlesian saint, who was beheaded in 303 or a little later, according to the sources. During the following centuries, the dead were even sent to Arles by boat, in pitch-coated barrels. Financial donations were also sent with the remains to pay for burial expenses and to make offerings to the deceased. From the Middle Ages onwards, the Alyscamps became the starting point of the Compostela route for pilgrims from Provence.
But what was the miracle performed by Saint Genest? A late legend, which originated well after the martyrdom of the saint, tells that the latter, after having lost his head on the block, picked it up, took it under his arm and threw it into the Rhône where an angel would have seized it and carried it to Spain.
Today, the site remains very impressive with its alignments of imposing sarcophagi, some of which are undeniable works of art. There is a very special atmosphere, meditative and soothing.
Also worth seeing is the church of Saint-Honorat-des-Alyscamps, classified as a historical monument, which is a real gateway to the past.
The Drapery
If you walk around Aigues-Mortes, you may not come across the Drapé, but you will certainly come across someone who can tell you the legend. Indeed, the story, although dating from time immemorial, is still well known to the locals.
The Drapé was a ghost horse (or a red donkey, according to the versions, thus making lie the adage which says that one cannot change a donkey into a racehorse) which raged in the surroundings of Aigues-Mortes. The sound of his hooves on the ground had the power to attract children who had the bad habit of playing hooky or who had simply lingered outside the city walls. The little victims, as if hypnotized, would climb on the back of the animal, which had the particularity of being able to lengthen according to the number of riders it carried. The Drapé then headed towards the marshes of Grau-du-Roi and there... the mystery remains. The fact remains that the children were never seen again. So, if you are going to visit the city with its magnificent ramparts, keep an eye on your little ones.
Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Oratory
Maillane is the village where Frédéric Mistral was born. What is less well known, however, is that a miracle happened there in 1854. That year, cholera returned for the third time in twenty years, claiming its share of victims among the French population. The dead were counted by the thousands. Nobody was spared, neither the poor nor the powerful. The president of the Council, Gabriel Perrier, had even died in the first wave. In short, Provence, like the rest of the country, trembled as it watched for signs of the terrible disease. In Maillane too, the inhabitants were hard hit. Between the dead and those who had fled, there were only about one hundred Maillanais left out of the fifteen hundred that the commune usually counted.
Since there were no star epidemiologists in those days, everyone turned to the only one who could save them: Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. A procession was organized. The penitents had barely reached the village square when the miracle occurred. A young woman, Marthe Gautier, who was about to pass away, suddenly opened her eyes as the bells began to ring. She was completely cured. Since then, the people of Maillan organize a festival in honor of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, every year at the end of August. However, it was not until 1954, exactly one hundred years after the event, that the oratory was built in its present location.
