Aigues Mortes fortified walls

The massive walls of the medieval fortress at Aigues Mortes on the Camargue, the embarkation town for the seventh and eighth crusades in 1248 and 1270 AD.The Burgundian King of France, Louis IX ordered the construction of the fortress in the Camargue marches and also a causeway to a quay a short distance away where the ships were able to berth. Burgundian France had no navigable harbour on the Mediterranean Sea until  a century later when Louis XI incorporated Provence in to France in 1486. These days, the walls enclose an attractive tourist town with restaurants, bars and boutique shops.