The Camargue

Les Chevaux

It's impossible to see everything you want to see and visit every place that has a line of interest for you, but there are some things that you get a certain sense about - that you just have to go there and that you will be richly rewarded for having made the effort


One thing I just had to do this time, having driven straight past it the last time I was in the south of France, was to explore the Camargue, the vast, salty Rhone River delta.

Salt Mountain in the Camargue

It's been an important place for its salt production (the famous fleurs de sel) for millenia, and it's also known for the wild, grey Camargue horses that have roamed there since paleolithic days.


In the end, its vastness somewhat defeated the capacity of our half day visit (!), but we did manage to visit Aigues-Mortes in the south west, with its astonishing fort and nearby salt mountains, and the unspeakably horrible and touristy Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, which looked like one of those hideous tourist towns on the Spanish coast that fills with pasty poms in the northern summer! It's saving graces included a beautiful soaring church tower and, of course, a view of the Mediterranean on a perfect spring day.

Flamingos of the Camargue

However, as a photographer, I really wanted to spend a late afternoon and evening watching the sun casting its late light on the flamingos of the Parc Ornothologique.  


You can get lucky, and it was a perfect, hot day in Provence with not a cloud in the sky.  With my Manfrotto tripod and trusty Canon 550D, we set up camp and were treated to a truly beautiful and spectacular display.  


When we could no longer summon the energy to take another snap, we settled in for a gourmet picnic in the beguiling light, drank a fine bottle of Corton Charlemagne and stuffed ourselves with fresh baguette, pate de fois, compte and munster cheeses.  Ahh.


However, I'll let the pictures do the talking.


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