Wander the narrow golden-hued streets, the same ones that famously inspired Van Gogh, to find the town's lovely restored Roman amphitheatre, top-notch art and history museums, and world-class restaurants. The Camargue's two largest towns are the seaside pilgrim's outpost Stes-Maries-de-la-Mer and, to the northwest, the walled town of Aigues-Mortes.
Jump to: Table of contents. At around thirteen or fourteen hands they are technically ponies. They are used in rounding up Camargue bulls. They are never stabled, but well able to survive the humid summer heat and the biting winter cold.
Riders are called gardians. Gardians are as near to anyone comes nowadays to living the cowboy way of life. They play a major role in guarding Camarguais traditions. They live in traditional cabanes, thatched and windowless single-storey structures furnished with bulls' horns over the door to ward off evil spirits. A guardian's traditional tools are a trident and a black hat. Click on the following link for more or more on Camargue horses and gardians.
The Camargue the only place in France and one of the few anywhere around the Mediterranean where pink flamingos nest. The flamingo population can reach 20, couples grouped into flocks. They favour raised nests built out of mud. Flamingoes eat mainly plankton, and are adapted to do so - much like baleen whales: they suck water in through their bills and expel it over fine filters in their mouths straining the plankton. It is this plankton, not as sometimes claimed crustacea, that are responsible for the flamingo's pink plumage.
The flamingo is the emblem of Camargue - a modern wheeze to appeal to tourists. Other Camarguese animals include sheep, wild boar, beavers, badgers; tree frogs, water snakes, pond turtles, along with a rich array of some types of bird, some of which are mentioned below. The area is also subject to the famous Mistral wind. An area covering 85, hectares of the Camargue was designated as a nature reserve in This area was granted National Park status in Efforts are now made to maintain the fragile equilibrium between the indigenous ecosystems on the one hand and human activities tourism, agriculture, industry and hunting on the other.
The north of the Camargue is mainly agricultural land. Main crops are cereals, grapevines and rice. The centre and south of Camargue is a more natural area, characterised by a brackish saline ecosystem. Flora of the Camargue is adapted to these conditions. Sea lavender and glasswort flourish along with tamarisks, reeds, juniper trees, wild irises wild rosemary. These salt water lagoons are surrounded by sand dunes. Originally sculpted by the wind they are now man-made - at least around Salin-de-Giraud.
They are where salt is produced - dried by the sun and wind in immense spaces called "salins". This salt was a source of great wealth for the so-called "salt abbeys" of Ulmet and Psalmody in the Middle Ages. The salt industry started up again in the nineteenth century and big chemicals companies founded the salt extraction city of Salin-de-Giraud.
Today, evaporation pans at Salin-de-Giraud - the largest in Europe - extend over 11, hectares and produce some 1,, metric tons a year, Sodium and chlorine from the salt are used in many chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
Low-lying salt plains sansouires dry out and crack in summer. They are carpeted with glasswort grazed by the wild bulls and Camargue horses. These plains are submerged in winter but in the spring they re-emerge as wetlands for marsh birds such as black-winged stilts, godwits, and sandpipers. It is a large body of water extending 6 hectares 23 sq. It receives water from three main canals constructed to drain off the minor lagoons.
It is is less than 2 meters deep. Today it collects the runoff from the surrounding rice paddies. Its exposure to sun and wind make it an efficient water purification system. Here you will find coots, diving ducks and fishing birds such as grebes, terns, seagulls, and those famous pink flamingos. Other Ponds and marshes cover a large part of the river delta.
Marshes are subject to the vagaries of the Mediteranean Climate and may dry up in summer. Ponds are the habitats of choice for migratory and sedentary birds including egrets, night herons, bitterns, mallards and wagtails. They are also home to innumerable insects, including the most ferocious mosquitoes to be found in France.
The Sea Dike. A dike was built in the nineteenth century to contain the delta, and prevent flooding by incoming sea water. On the east it borders some of the Salin-de-Giraud salt farms.
To the west beyond dunes are stabilised by chestnut wood palisades to retain the sand "ganivelles". They have their own specialised flora including marram grass, sand lily, dog's tooth, and spurge. The area attracts sterns, avocets, kentish plovers and of course of seagulls.
Camargue Woodlands. Woodland accounts for a small part of Camargue physically, but plays an important part in the balance of nature. Wooded areas provide habitat for many mammals, including rodents, foxes, and wild boar; and insects which attract nesting birds such as little egrets and night herons.
The Camargue has a coastline some 30 miles in length and an area of sq. Its average elevation is from 8 ft to 62 feet above sea level. Flooding remains a "problem" across the region. Though constrained by the sea dike, the natural tendency as in all river deltas is for the coastline to move outwards.
Aigues Mortes was on the coast when it was built - it was built specifically as sea port in the thirteenth century when France annexed this land.
It is now some 5 km 3 miles inland. The south-eastern part of the Camargue is called the Ile du Plan du Bourg. A secondary delta to the west of the Petit Rhone is known as the Petite Camargue. Tourism is a major source of income.
The Camargue is visited by over one million tourists each year. They come to see the unique flora and fauna of the area - the famous Camargue horses, bulls, and birds - including the famous flamingos which provide a marketing brand of the Camargue National Park. Ideal months for bird-watching are the mating period of April to June, with the greatest number of flamingos present between April and September.
Salt marshes near Salin-de-Giraud in the southeast corner of the Camargue are famous for their salt production, producing up to 15, tons a day in the summer. This is one of the biggest salt works anywhere in the world. She is just was delightful as you would expect her to be and she spent over an hour with us. It was one of the highlights of our trips. Every day we had to pinch ourselves that we were doing all of these fabulous things from Paris, to Normandy, to Brittany, to the Loire Valley, to Burgundy, to Provence and to the French Riviera.
As you can see, we covered a lot of territory because of Emilie's willingness to customize our trip so that we could see a lot of France. We agree with the suggestion to go with your own GPS. It certainly helps to know how to use it before you arrive. We also suggest that you book your trip well in advance so that Emilie has time to arrange the best bed and breakfasts and the best tour guides.
We certainly felt like we had that and we booked our trip seven months ahead. And read your tour book s before you go. You will still refer to them each and every day but there is so much general information in the books that we found very helpful.
Thank you, Emilie, for truly giving us the trip of a lifetime. We have memories that will last forever because of you. Get our monthly travel news and best tips by subscribing to our newsletter.
Breadcrumb Home The Camargue in Provence. Van Gogh painting Arles city by night. See us on Trip Advisor. See us on Facebook. See us on Google. She interviewed us in advance so she could customize the trip to our desires and interests and ultimately created …. I highly recommend …. We were a little …. Prev Next. From the US. In Paris. From Australia.
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