Camargue - Landscape

In spite of the enormous amount of tourism, parts of the Camargue are still completely isolated and flat. The Camargue (Provençal Camargo) is an area with a thoroughly individual and often quite melancholy character. Over many centuries the Rhône has deposited detritus, sand and soil in its delta, pushing it ever further out into the sea. As a result, the old port of Aigues-Mortes has receded some 5km/3mi from the coastline in the course of some 600 years. While this has been happening in the western part of Camargue, the very opposite has occurred in the southeast; Stes-Maries-de-la-Mer, which was some miles inland during the Middle Ages, is now on the coast! The part nearest the sea, around the lagoon of the Etang de Vaccarès, consists almost entirely of lagoons and reed-infested marshes or dry salt expanses and dunes on which, in places, umbrella pines, juniper bushes and tamarisks thrive.

Waterfowl - in recent years there has been a considerably increased colony of flamingoes, heron etc. - and even birds of prey are numerous; turtles and beavers can also be found. In winter especially, men on horseback round up half- wild herds ("manades") of sheep, small black cattle and light gray horses. After spending much of their young lives in freedom these well-known Camargue horses are sold for riding or hired out in the holiday season - in many places there are centers with Promenades à Cheval (horse-riding centers).