There are other sides to this incredibly rich and varied region though and one of them is around the Rhone Delta. The Camargue is a wild wetland, unique in Europe, and home to a wide variety of flora and fauna. Chief among the latter is the beautiful trio of wild white horses, hefty black bulls and impossibly fragile pink flamingoes. All these creatures have made their homes in the marshland, the horses breeding there since prehistoric times.
I headed off last weekend to the Camargue to have a look at its flat marshes and exposed beaches in the February sunlight. One of the wonderful things about living here in Provence is that pretty much whatever type of countryside you want to walk out into (barring tundra and volcanic ash...) you can find it within a reasonable distance. There are plains, gentle hills, canals, lakes, shallow rivers, the wide Rhone, the foothills of the Alps, the beach, the Mediterranean sea, the scrubland of the garrigue, vineyards, limestone caves - all within one or two hour's drive or so. The Camargue adds a shimmering wetland - which also features rather strange salt mountains.
I'm not overly attracted by the lunar landscape of the saltflats but I decided to have another look at them. It was a sunny day and the drive down past the old town of Arles to the sea and into the Camargue was lovely. At the tiny village of Salin de Giraud the wet land becomes salt flats and saltworks. The Mediterranean seawater is corralled into shallow lakes where the water evaporates, leaving the white salt exposed. I gazed out over great hills of salt along the coast at Salin where Heath-Robinson style machinery was parked alongside, ready to start gathering in the salt once more on the following Monday. There's a sort of belvedere where you get to look out over the salt lakes. Oddly, the water looks crimson in one direction and a golden yellow in another.
Having walked by the salt mountains for a while I set off to the nearby beach. The sea was dazzling under the brilliant afternoon sun. I sat down and unpacked my lunch - hunks of bread, fresh goat's cheese, a little rosé wine (from the Camargue) and some fruit. Quite suddenly, two riders arrived and galloped their white horses at breakneck speed along the entire length of the beach. They were two youngish women and clearly both voltigeuses, or acrobats, who perform in the many circuses and other spectacles that are popular in France. The riders swung themselves wildly on and off their saddles, just touching their feet to the sand on either side of their horses then flinging themselves back into their saddles. They balanced precariously on the horses' backs too, legs extended and arms in the air. One rider performed a move which was amost a handstand. All this was done as the horses galloped enthusiastically down the beach and back again. It was fabulous to watch.
I packed up and went in search of a café in Salin de Giraud. It was a much more interesting little village than I'd thought. It's well worth a visit if you're exploring the Camargue. There are rows of identical terraced houses - constructed in the nineteenth century is my guess, for the workers in the village factory which manufactured household and industrial goods using the Salin sea salt. The central café is huge for such a tiny place and was clearly built originally for a busy community of working men. Its long bar would have served coffee, pastis, beer and wine to the men who dug the salt from the beach and operated the factory machines. Nowadays, the place serves coffee, pastis, beer, wine and lunch to locals and tourists who're holidaying in the Camargue. A huge TV screen was showing a French football match.
Usually, if I give a thought to salt, I think of table salt and salt used in food. The Salin de Giraud salt is apparently mostly destined for use on roads in the Alps and on other roads where snow's a problem. It's also used in other industrial products. A relatively miniscule amount ends up as refined salt or chunky sea salt to sprinkle in Provencal recipes.
Leaving Salin, I stopped to look at a flock of pretty flamants roses - pink flamingoes - wading delicately in shallow water by the roadside. They moved slowly, necks stretching down to the water, picking up their stick-thin legs with care. Behind them, in marshy terrain, there were a dozen or so hefty black Camargue bulls grazing peacefully.
In the warmer months in Provence, holidaymakers and locals ride through the Camargue on the ubiquitous white Camargue horses. For anyone who enjoys riding, and likes to ride in wild countryside, the Camargue is a joy. There are horses all around the wetlands which can be hired for promenades. You can take a horse out on your own if you know what you're doing, or join a group who are led through the marshy terrain by an experienced rider if you prefer. The Camargue horses are unshod and are traditionally used to round up the black bulls. If you have ever seen a photograph or postcard of the Camargue, the chances are it showed a herd of these beautiful white horses galloping through water, sending up showers of silvery spray around their wild manes.
From the horses to the black bulls, pink flamingoes, long sandy beaches and salt flats, the Camargue is a fascinating area to explore. And even here, this being France, the sandier ground is used to cultivate vines and produce rosé wine. Sipping a cold local rosé wine as you watch voltigeuses rehearse on the beach, or jet-black taureaux graze in peace, or pink flamingoes wade through reeds is a pretty nice way to end a day out. So I poured myself a small glass of 'pink' and watched the sun set over the Mediterranean and the beautiful Camargue.
Source:
Personal experience
http://provencesouthoffrance.blogspot.com
http://www.languedoc-france.info/07020202_camarguehorses.htm
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