Reserve Camargue (Camargue) - swampy valley in the Rhone delta. Local pThe pastures are ideal for grazing livestock.Local black bulls are quite serious. The shape of their long sharp horns, famously twisted upwards, their considerable size and overall formidable appearance command respect. But bulls are not so easy to walk in nature, they must be pastured. And who is grazingcows andbulls?Tocowboys, of course. And what does a cowboy need to grazeherd? Horse,certainly. This is how the triangle formed here: black bulls, cowboys and horses.
Road D570 passes through the reserve in the direction of the sea. Passing along it, then on the right, then on the left you can see grazing bulls, and along the road there is a ranch with saddled horses, ready to go for a walk with you. The pleasure is inexpensive, for a walk for an hour and a half you need to pay about 20 euros.
Ponies are prepared for the little ones.
More seaside town Saint Marie de la Mer (Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer) , quite pleasant, with white houses, a beautiful cathedral and an overall relaxing resort atmosphere.
itgreat place for a good lunch. whole street Avenue Frederic Mistral consists entirely of restaurants serving dishes Mediterranean cuisine, and the main place in them is occupied by seafood. Competing with each other, restaurants give out excellent quality of dishes at very reasonable prices. For example, a three-course menu: starter, main course and dessert is offered for 18.50 euros, with several options for each item.
Paella with chicken and seafood.
Baked mussels.
A fish soup in which you need to launch “boats”.
Fish with vegetables and Camargue rice.
Mussels in white wine with French fries.
You can also try the famous ruby soup here. Bouillabaisse (Bouillabaisse) for only 13.50 euros. The price for it at home in Marseille reaches 50 euros per serving. So time your trip so that you can taste the local cuisine. Traditionally, a French lunch is served between 12 and 15 hours, and from 15 to 19 restaurants close for a siesta.
On our visit to Sainte-Marie, we were very lucky. Having paid 5 euros, we got to the training of local bullfighters. However, to call them that way is not entirely fair. These young people do not wave a red cloak in front of the bull, doing almost ballet steps, but quickly run away from him, while trying to scratch the bull between the horns with an iron comb.
From pain, the bull becomes even more ferocious and with Nova tries to punish the offenders by raising her on the horns. Eventually the bull gets tired and is sent to rest. Of course, this is not a real bullfight, but the spectacle is fascinating and exciting. Guys no doubt risk, one awkward movement - and the horn will get you. This time it worked out: both the bulls are alive and the bullfighters are safe.
The town itself is notable for good beaches, a couple shopping streets with a bunch of shops and the church of the same name Saint Marie de la Mer.According to legend, in the first half of the first century from the birth of Christ, at the time of Roman persecution of the followers of the teachings of Christ, seven Christians were thrown into a fragile boat without a rudder and oars, they did not give food with them and pushed them away from the shore. These seven were: Maximin, Lazarus, Mary Magdalene, Martha, Mary Salome, mother of the apostles John and James, Mary of Jacob, sister of the Virgin, and Sarah the Egyptian. Soon the waves washed the boat ashore right here in Sainte-Marie. Not all participants in the voyage remained on the coast - Maximin went to preach in Tarascon, Lazarus and Martha - in Aix-en-Provence, and Mary Magdalene - in Marseille. The two Marys and their maid Sarah (they called her an Egyptian only in order not to offend, Sarah was a gypsy) remained where they were. Here they lived the rest of their lives, doing good deeds. Three women were buried in a chapel built by them, now a church. You can climb to the roof of the temple and see the surroundings.
Now this city is the "Mecca" of the gypsies. They come here to bow to Sarah and twice a year, on May 24 and October 22, to follow the figures of the three saints in the procession through the streets of the city.
You have to go to see flamingos Ornithological park (Pont de Gau Ornithological Park) (admission 7-50 euros), open all year round until sunset.
It is 4 kilometers from Saint Marie towards Arles. There are a lot of flamingos, herons and other birds. At the entrance they give a plan of the park, it is better to go to the right, go 2.5 km, bypassing the route points from 1 to 10. There is also a second circle - 4.3 km, but this will already be a repetition of what has already been passed - the flamingos will already pose for you to the fullest!
You can also see the Camargue using the Tiki III steamboat http://www.tiki3.fr/ or on a sightseeing train departing from the arena in Saint-Marie http://www.lepetittrain.camargue.fr/. True, we didn’t like the steamboat, it was a bit boring, but we haven’t had a chance to ride on a steam locomotive yet.
Outcome: This trip is not like the others. There is no charm of the Vaucluse valley, the grandeur of the Roman monuments of Nimes, Arles and Orange, the chic and gloss of the Côte d'Azur. Here is flora and fauna, cowboys and gypsies, traditions and customs of the unique Camargue natural reserve.
If you want to go on a trip around Europe organized by me, see the current offers for joining groups on my website www.dmitrysokolov.ru
Dmitry Sokolov
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Camargue - the most expressive area . The Camargue is gypsies and holidays like nothing else; it's a bullfight; it is a unique nature reserve; this is a mistral and that says it all. Mistral wind in translation means "master", because it blows when it wants and how much it wants, it is always unexpected and unpredictable. But it has an exact duration - 3 days, 6 or 9. Its speed starts from 50 kilometers per hour and reaches 150. If they are not imbued with and do not feel its mystical power, then you can easily go crazy, which many do.
In the town of Sainte-Marie-de-la-Mer, on May 24, a holiday is celebrated: Saint Sarah's Day- the patroness of the gypsies. On this holiday, gypsies from all over Europe flock here - the whole city and the church of Sainte-Marie become a gypsy Mecca. Every Catholic gypsy dreams of being in this temple at least once in his life on this very day. It's like for Muslims to make a hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca, for Christians to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, and for Buddhists to visit the temple of Buddha, where his tooth is kept. The Church of Saint-Marie was built in the 9th century. Here are the relics of two Marys. The name of the town of Saint-Maries-de-la-Mer is translated as Saint Mary from the sea. And that's why. In 40 AD The Romans decided to get rid of the relatives and friends of Jesus Christ. They put them in a ship without a sail and oars and sent them to the blue sea. On that ship were - Mary Magdalena, Maria Salome, Maria Jacobleva, Martha (who defeated the Tarasco monster in Tarascon), Lazarus, Maximilian. It was with all of them that the ship landed on the shore of this town. There was also a certain Sarah with them. Who is she and why exactly did she become a saint and patroness of gypsies? She comes from, at one time she was the wife of Pontius Pilate. But after she converted to Christianity, a high-ranking husband rejected her. She became the leader of a nomadic tribe. Once she had a dream in which an angel appeared to her and said that she should become a servant of two Marys. She found them and went to their service - and so she ended up with them on the ship. And why did she become the patroness of the gypsies, and not St. Mary Magdalene or Mary Salome? And all because the reputation of the gypsies says that they are not very honest. And, allegedly, they are ashamed to directly address through the holy well-behaved virgins, and Sarah, since she was a servant, became their mediator.
by the most important point the festive ceremony is the removal of the rakke - the sarcophagus in which the relics of St. Mary are buried. It descends from under the dome and then pandemonium begins. During the French Revolution, the robbers shook out the holy relics on the floor of the temple, and the locals collected them and hid them in their homes, and when the revolution ended, they returned the remains to the temple. Since then, the relics have been kept under the ceiling, and only once every few years they are sent to Lourdes (a city in western France, where the sick are healed with water from the spring of St. Bernadette). After the service, the statue of Saint Sarah is taken out of the temple, carried around the city, after which they are dipped into the sea and everyone dives (despite the fact that the water is still cold at the end of May), after which the statue is returned to the crypt until the next holiday.
In the harsh year of the Spanish Inquisition in the 16th century, mass expulsions of Jews and Gypsies began from Spain. Well, the Jews are a different story, but as for the Gypsies, they settled in the Camargue. This is a harsh region for Provence: sweltering heat in summer, the rest of the time - maddening mistral. In order to live here, you have to want to live here. The people here are harsh: they ride semi-wild horses and raise bulls - this is a cowboy area. Most of the population lives on farms and carefully honors ancient traditions. The men are somewhat reminiscent of American cowboys, but the French riders, who are called guardiens, are 300 years older than them. All family members usually work on the farm.
The wives of French guardiens are called Arlésiennes. A real Arlesian knows and observes local traditions and rides a horse. Every three years, the Queen of Arles is elected. To do this, she does not need to walk the catwalk in a bathing suit, on the contrary, the Queen of Arles must be able to embroider, speak Provencal, know the traditions of Provence and ride a horse. The Queen is present at all holidays. And for the family it is a great honor when their daughter becomes the Queen of Arles and the photos from the competition are the main home relic. By the way, there should be exactly 83 pins in the upper part of the Arlesian dress. It takes at least two hours to get dressed and hair done! The most expensive part of the costume is the headband. In winter, Arlesian women do not wear fur coats, but wrap themselves in woolen shawls more than 4 meters long.
The men's costume consists of a bright gypsy-style shirt, denim trousers with stripes, boots and a black velvet jacket with red lining. Moreover, this national costume of the guardiens was invented by the Russian artist Pryanichnikov. He combined the English and Russian lines in it. The British, entering the smoking room, threw on a velvet cape, which absorbed the smoke of tobacco and thus the rest of the clothes were not smoky. Guardians spend a lot of time with horses and bulls, and so that, upon returning home, the owner does not smell of animals, he takes off his velvet jacket in the hallway, which has absorbed all the aromas of the stable. And the Russian line is because the artist Pryanichnikov was the personal battle painter of Tsar Alexander III and always depicted him in a uniform with an indispensable red lining on his jacket.
The symbol of Sainte-Marie-de-la-Mer and the entire Camargue is the cross, on the upper part of which there is a trident, with which the guardians drive the bulls. The cross itself symbolizes faith - the heart in the middle means faith. And the anchor at the bottom of the cross is the sea.
Bullfighting is very popular in the Camargue.. In France, bullfighting is not prohibited - it is real here, with all the consequences. Here, only Spanish bulls perform at bullfights. As a rule, the bull enters the arena only once. Because here you either pan or disappear. Those bulls that come out victorious in a duel for the second time are no longer released into the arena. Since they gain experience and are not going to run after a rag. Bulls, after all, contrary to popular belief, do not rush to red, but react to movement.
Camargue bulls, unlike the Spanish ones, are noticeably smaller and their horns are not directed forward, but upwards. Unlike the Spanish bulls, they do not participate in bullfighting - the locals feel sorry for them and they simply participate in games that are bloodless for them. Metal caps, a cockade and a rope are put on the bull's horns. A group of four or five players enter the arena and their task is to pull this cockade with ropes from the horns of the bull. In practice, this is not an easy task. Unsuccessful and indecisive bulls are sent to the sausage, and those who have shown a fighting character after several fights become smarter and more aggressive, which saves their lives. Some fight human for 10 years, after which the retired bulls are sent back to the farms they came from, where they share their memories with the rest of the retired bulls.
Camargue, France - video
Saint Marie de la Mer on the map
There is an incredible nature reserve in the south of France called Camargue (Camargue). The swampy area in the Rhone River delta, a kind of analogue of the Astrakhan Nature Reserve, is a real oasis for a huge number of birds: ducks, herons, bitterns, owls, storks, lapwings and, of course, pink flamingos, which will be discussed in this entry. These are incredible beautiful birds, "children of sunset", find an abundance of food and safe nesting sites in the reserve. There are not so many corners in Europe where you can admire such an amazing sight - a reddish-orange steppe and a bright blue lagoon strewn with white and pink dots. If you are lucky, you will see flamingos up close, and maybe even in flight. But even from afar, they will not leave you indifferent.
The Camargue is 930 square kilometers of salt marshes, reed marshes, sea lagoons and alluvial sandy islands. The easiest way to get here is by car - two hours from Marseille or an hour from Montpellier. The reserve does not immediately make an impression, but the more you drive through it, the more interesting and diverse landscapes open up to your eyes.
Sea salt is present on land, in water and in the air. Only certain types of plants can survive in conditions that combine salt water, sand and dry soil, scorched by the bright sun of Provence.
Thickets of European saltwort give a special piquancy to the Camargue steppes. This unpretentious annual plant, which survives well in salt marshes, blooms in red, transforming earthly landscapes into Martian ones.
In France, soleros is sometimes used as a condiment or even a side dish. Plants extract soda from the ashes, and succulent stems can serve as livestock feed or raw material for biofuel.
For the first time I saw in France the soil cracked from the heat. An additional contrast to this phenomenon is given by the river flowing nearby.
And again tenacious soleros, only not yet reddened.
And in some places the Camargue is a real desert. It's amazing how such different landscapes can exist side by side.
In addition to flamingos, the reserve is famous for the local breeds of horses (white) and bulls (black). I managed to photograph the Camargue horses at one of the camps, but I never met the bulls. But at least he completed the main task of the trip. Which - you already guess and will soon see.
The search for flamingos turned out to be quite exciting. To start, I went to information centre, where a kind Frenchwoman showed on the map the most interesting places in the reserve, including a lake where pink birds hunt. On the way there, at every turn, I kept an eye on all the birds, but as a rule, it turned out to be small herons.
At first, nothing interesting was noticeable on the specified lake. But as soon as we walked literally a hundred meters, bright points appeared in the distance. My heart suddenly started beating faster. Did I come here for nothing?
I take out the camera, unscrew the zoom - and here it is, happiness!
Flamingos are engaged in the extraction of food - molluscs and crustaceans, so they constantly keep their beak at water level. It all looks rather strange and even scary - such wineskins on three legs, wandering along the lake with a strange gait.
It was not easy to catch the birds in some interesting pose - I got only one frame of rather average interestingness. Flamingos only raised their heads out of the water for a few seconds, and then dived again with their beaks.
And there were quite a lot of points in the distance.
Too far - 200 mm zoom was clearly not enough. And you can’t get closer - there is a kind of exclusion zone. People do not interfere with the birds, and they, in turn, do not fly away and allow themselves to be photographed - from a decent distance.
Rejoiced that the desire to see flamingos was fulfilled, I drove on. On the shore of a salt lake (which was once part of the sea) I saw a lone bird that did not want to turn around to face the photographer. In the background is the Gaschol lighthouse. That's where we'll go.
The road to the lighthouse can be summarized in one road sign. This is really 4 km of gravel with speed bumps every hundred to two hundred meters. Although it is worth noting that the main roads in the park are of excellent quality. However, as elsewhere in France.
Gashol lighthouse was built in 1882. Nearby is a dam that protects the mouth of the Rhone from the effects of the Mediterranean Sea.
The observation deck at the top was closed, and two cyclists were resting in the courtyard. The distances here are quite large - from the parking lot to the lighthouse on foot about 15 minutes, and the smallest circular route past the lighthouse is 10 km - it is most convenient to walk on a bicycle.
The scenery here is truly African. To be honest, I still could not believe that I was still in Europe. Red steppe (or savannah?), a lake with flamingos and mountains on the horizon.
Again 4 km of speed bumps and we return to the lake with flamingos. And then - about a miracle! The birds came closer, and even illuminated by the evening sun. We immediately stop and take out the camera.
Flamingos are very methodically combing the lake, stretching out in a chain and almost dividing the water surface into conditional squares. Apparently, they explored the part farthest from the road during the day, and in the evening they approached the shore.
In this shot, flamingos again look like waterskins on legs. With their strange gait, they reminded me of creatures from some terrible computer game or a horror movie.
Seeing people with a camera, the birds began to slowly move away from the shore. Nothing to do about. I got into the car and drove slowly along the lake. And then I realized that if you stay in the car, the flamingos will not take you for a potential enemy and let you get closer. I stopped on a deserted road, opened the window, took out Nikon - and for a while forgot about everything except the viewfinder window.
So close to these birds, I never dreamed of coming.
The soft evening sun highlighted the pink plumage of the adults and the gray clothes of the young.
Flamingos, it turns out, are monogamous, although they like to live in colonies of several hundred and even thousands of individuals. They can live over 30 years in captivity.
In the backlight, the birds appear translucent.
Mother and son. Maybe dad and daughter. Do not disassemble.
I'm not afraid to say that these incredible creatures have become one of the highlights of this year. For the sake of such a performance, it was worth crossing France. I regret that I do not have a lens with a large focal length. However, I already complained about this when I went to the air show in Le Bourget. Airplanes are birds too. And yet, between spotting and animalistic photography, I would choose the latter.
And you, dear friends, had a chance to take pictures unusual birds and animals? Maybe you have been on a safari in Africa or in some other reserves? Share information and staff.
And the Greater Rhone embraces on both sides the island of Greater Camargue, almost entirely occupied by sea lagoons, from which the Camargue salt so beloved by gourmets is evaporated here; the western bank of the Lesser Rhone is called the Petit Camargue, the eastern bank of the Greater Rhone is called the Plan de Bourg. These wastelands are occupied by juniper forests, reed beds, swamps and salt marshes.
In its original form, almost the entire Mediterranean coast of France was a mosaic of swamps, sea lagoons and sandy islands, covered with thickets of reeds, heather and juniper. Wetlands teemed with game, semi-steppe areas (still preserved as a relic only in the Camargue) and herds of wild white-gray horses (a short Camargue breed is a direct descendant of the native horse that appeared here 50 thousand years ago) rushed in the sea surf. This is how they saw the coast of Provence approx. 800 BC e. the Ligurian tribes, then the Celts and the ancient Greeks (founded the city c. 600 BC), then the Romans (Romanization of Provence from the 2nd century BC), after the fall of Rome - the Visigoths and the Franks, in the 8th century . - Arabs. In the second half of the ninth century there was a kingdom, from the beginning of the XI century. Provence was part of the Holy Roman Empire and in 1246 became part of the Kingdom of France.
The small tourist town of Aigues-Mortes (“dead water” - because of its salinity), from whose well-preserved fortress walls with 20 towers and 10 gates (XIII century) the Camargue salt mountains are visible - the very first Mediterranean port of the French kings. This coastal swampy wasteland, devastated by the Albigensian wars (1209-1229) and captured by the Count of Toulouse in 1240, he helped to recapture and bought from his father-in-law, Raymond Berenger, Count of Provence, Saint Louis IX (he was married to Margaret of Provence from 1234 ). Louis immediately began to build a lighthouse and a port here; from here he went on the extremely unsuccessful 7th and 8th Crusades for himself (in the campaign of 1249-1250 he was captured, and his wife barely managed to redeem him, in the campaign of 1270 he died). City of Aigues-Mortes until the XVI century. flourished on maritime trade and was considered one of the most significant on the French coast (in 1538, it was here that Francis I and Charles V of Habsburg held negotiations, after which they concluded a peace treaty in Nice). But then, due to the sandy sediments of the Rhone, the lagoon became shallow, the port was cut off from the sea and lost leadership to Marseille. And he himself seemed to be “conserved” in the form in which he was in the Middle Ages; however, today it hardly has a half of the former number of inhabitants, but there is no end to tourists.
In the 19th century, when the more fertile parts of the coast were drained and cultivated, which led to a healthier climate (mosquitoes and, accordingly, malaria disappeared), the barren salt marshes and swamps of the Camargue were left alone. Not because the French were already striving to preserve the unique ecoregion intact, but because of the barrenness of these wastelands and the ferocity of the mistral - a cold north-west wind that can uproot trees, because of which the French called the Arles area a dead place. Blinding sun, corroding salt, squally cold wind - that's who turned out to be the main defender of virgin nature in these parts.
With the exception of Marseille, located on the eastern edge of the Camargue, and Arles, located on the "top" of the mouth of the Rhone, which splits into sleeves, this is a giant salt marsh - a wasteland devoid of large settlements. There are only small towns such as the museum-medieval Aigues-Mortes, which specializes in the production of Saint-Gilles sea salt and the "gypsy Mecca" - Sainte-Marie-de-la-Mer (only 2.5 thousand people live there, but 24- On May 25, on the day of the holy gypsy Sarah, many thousands of Catholic gypsies flock there). The swampy Camargue ecoregion is almost entirely a biosphere reserve, although there are also private estates in it, where the owners are ready to organize hunting and fishing. But most of it is protected by the state and the international Convention on wetlands, which have international importance mainly as waterfowl habitats (Ramsar Convention 1971).
All those who love to relax on the Cote d'Azur and in Provence will certainly look into this corner of the wild.
The sand deposits of the Rhone in the lower reaches, blocking the exit to the sea at its ancient mouth, people have learned to bypass. In 1925, the Marseille-Rhone canal was dug, departing from Arles to the east and further through the Étang-de-Ber lagoon and a 7.2 km long tunnel to Marseille. This made it possible to create a natural reserve in the wetlands of the Camargue in the river delta (since 1928), which later received the status of a biosphere reserve.
In 1948, several more bypass channels were dug on the Rhone. But the region did not remain isolated: very close, on the eastern border of the Camargue, is the international airport of Marseille; between Marseille and Arles, Avignon and Montpellier, lying to the west of it, is a dense network of automobile and railways and channels.
After the noise, bustle and smog of megacities - the inevitable costs of modern civilization - a quiet and almost deserted reserved place with an intricate labyrinth of beaches, sand dunes, reed beds, estuaries, coastal forests and pastures, salt pans is perceived as a wonderful fairy tale. It seems that a white unicorn is about to come out of the juniper forest ... And an amazing creature really runs out from there - the wild white horse Kamar-gu. Low at the withers, 130-150 cm, and not particularly graceful compared to thoroughbred horses, she is distinguished by an obedient, friendly disposition and endurance. And no matter what experts of elite breeds say, a herd of white swamp horses, raising a cloud of water spray in the estuary on the run, is a delightful sight. In the neighborhood of herds of light gray horses, powerful black bulls graze - a local Camargue breed that is used for the "courtly" French equivalent of bullfighting (the animal is not killed, you just need to rip the cockade rosette from the bull's horn).
In the Camargue with his high level salinity of the soil, created by salt deposits (there are whole mountains of salt!), One of the simplest methods of extracting salt is used - by evaporating sea water in the sun. In the salt pans of the Camargue, sea water is pumped through a series of shallow ponds or reservoirs, becoming more and more saturated with a solution (brine), until the last pool evaporates the remaining water, leaving crystalline salt. This artificial system has made the Camargue a comfortable habitat for the salt crustacean brine shrimp - the main food of the pink flamingo and many other waterfowl. That is, the reserve gives birds safe nesting places, and salty lagoons with crustaceans - a constant abundance of food. The number of pink flamingos, constantly increasing since 1944, reached 24,000 by 1991.
But this swampy area, with its advantageous geographical position, safety and abundance of food, was chosen not only by horses, bulls and flamingos: more than 300 species of migratory birds have been recorded here. Flying through the wetlands of the Camargue, millions of ducks (teals, mallards, wigeons, gray ducks, shovelers, etc.), geese and other marsh birds stop here to rest. Some birds fly further immediately after a short respite, while others nest here and breed offspring (sea plover, slender-billed gull, red-nosed pochard, stilt, avdotka, avocet, meadow tirkushka ...). Bitterns, little bitterns, as well as red, yellow, little white and Egyptian herons feel at home in the preserved thickets of freshwater reeds and make their nests. Here you can also see a variety of warblers and marsh harriers, which sometimes soar above the reeds. Of the plants, the Phoenician juniper, up to 7 m high with a trunk girth of up to half a meter, deserves special mention; soft purple lavender and blue thistle grow.
general information
Extensive wetland, biosphere reserve of international importance.Location: at the mouth of the Rhone on the Mediterranean coast, in the Gulf of Lion.
Administrative affiliation: Greater Camargue and Plan-de-Bourg - Bouches-du-Rhone department, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur district; The Petit Camargue is a Gard department in the Languedoc-Roussy-Lyon region, Southern France.
Year of foundation: regional park-reserve 1927, biosphere reserve since 1971
Main geographical features: Lesser and Greater Rhone, Greater Camargue island, eastern bank of the Greater Rhone Plan de Bourg, western coast of the Lesser Rhone - Lesser
Major cities: Aigues-Mortes, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, Saint-Gilles, Arles.
Nearest airport: Marseille International Airport.
Numbers
Area: 930 km2.Species biodiversity: birds - 300 species, including pink flamingos; also semi-wild white horses, black bulls.
Climate and weather
Mediterranean.In the spring, the mistral blows (the strongest cold northwest winds), in the summer it is dry and sunny.
January average temperature: +7°С.
July average temperature: +25°С.
Average annual rainfall: 500 mm.
Economy
Industry: extraction of sea salt by evaporation (salt fishing is put on an industrial basis in Salen-de-Giraud), food, winemaking.Agriculture: animal husbandry (local black breed of bulls, white semi-wild horses), crop production (vine growing, cultivation of asparagus, etc.).
Service sector: tourism (ecotourism, hunting, fishing), transport.
Attractions
■ Natural: the biosphere reserve protects the landscapes of the ancient delta of the Rhone with numerous water bodies of varying degrees of salinity. A unique forest of juniper (Juniperus phoenicea) up to 7 m high, up to 50 cm in diameter. Salt mountains, salt pans.
■ Herds of semi-wild white horses of the Camargue breed. Herds of black bulls. Pink flamingos, white herons, etc. nest. In total, up to 300 species of birds are found.
■ The nature reserve is studied by the Tours du Val biostation.
■ Cultural and historical: Big Camargue - ornithological museum, artificial system of evaporation of sea salt (chains of ponds).
■ City of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer: 12th century church with the underground crypt of the mythical saint gypsy Sarah; picturesque embankment, many restaurants (Mediterranean seafood cuisine is one of the best in France).
■ City of Aigues-Mortes: well-preserved city wall of the 11th-11th centuries, the old town and the watchtowers of Constance (1242) and Carbonniere (no later than 1346), the Church of Notre-Dame de Sablon (XIII century).
■ City of Arles(the capital of the Roman province of Romana): ancient buildings - part of the city wall, theater and amphitheater (I century BC, still used for bullfighting); the ruins of ancient Arelata along Via Aurelia, the road leading to Rome, were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981; the medieval Cathedral of St. Trofim (in the Romanesque style of the 12th century, the Gothic elements were completed in the 15th century); "Van Gogh Hospital" (now Cultural Center).
■ City of Marseille: the Abbey of Saint-Victor and the Basilica of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde (5th century), the Old Port, etc.
Curious facts
■ Artemia salt crustacean, whose length does not exceed 15 mm, can live in water with a salinity three times lower and six times higher than in the sea, but in fresh water it will die in about an hour. It lives in salt lakes and lagoons, almost never occurs in the open sea. The color of the animal depends on the concentration of salt: at a high concentration, the crustacean acquires a slightly reddish appearance. It is he who paints the Camargue lakes in such an unusual rich pink color to match the flamingos.
■ Sarah Kali (Gypsy Sarah) - semi-mythical saint, patroness of Catholic gypsies. According to legend, she was a servant of Mary Magdalene and the Virgin Mary and sailed with them on the ship after the death of Christ. In a severe storm, thanks to Sarah, the women managed to escape in a small boat: by the stars, she found her way to the shore. Legend has it that the women landed on the shore just at the site of the town of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer.
■ According to another version of the myth, Sarah was a nomadic gypsy, and she had a vision that the holy witnesses of the death of Christ should land on the shore at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer and they need help. Allegedly, Sarah threw her dress into the water and floated on it to the boat, as on a raft, and helped to moor; the saved converted her to the Christian faith.
■ Arles lives on its past. There are colored signs on the cobblestones of the street pavements: blue arrows point to Roman Arles, green arrows point to medieval Arles, and yellow ones point to a poster with a reproduction of one of Vincent Van Rogh's paintings.
■ From February 1888 to May 1889, the artists Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh worked in Arles, and for the latter, despite the morbid state of mind, it was an exceptionally productive period: in 15 months he painted about 200 canvases with a view of Arles and its environs including the Camargue.
The sea lagoon and reed marshes of the Rhone Delta are a real natural stronghold for flamingos, white horses and wild bulls.
Our photo-hunt for flamingos began in the Spanish Seville, in Donana Park (). But in December it was not the season, so there were not many flamingos and the rest of the birds turned out to be very shy. All sources write that in Europe there are only two habitats of pink flamingos - these are the Camargue and Donana reserves. The most active nesting time is April-May, in summer the lagoons can dry up and it will be more difficult to see flamingos. If you believe the guidebooks, then thousands of ordinary pink flamingos live in the Camargue. We expected to see completely "pink" estuaries, teeming with numerous flocks of birds.
Approximately on Google, the places look impressive.
Maps of the reserve and the surrounding area can be viewed and
You can stay overnight at one of the hotels in the seaside village LesSaintes-maries-de-la-Mer on the western side of the bay. On both sides of the bay there are paved paths leading close to the water.
With the anticipation of a successful photo-hunt, we got up at 6 am, packed a photo-backpack and drove along the navigator to the very wilds of the swampy bay. The D85a is a well-paved road to the right towards the swamps just past the town exit. White wild stocky horses met us right next to the road.
The flamingos didn't take long either, but there were only a few flocks and no more than a dozen individuals in different parts of the lagoon. Our 300mm zoom was clearly not enough for such shots.
Tried a bit of luck on different side paths of the bay looking for birds. Lakes and dirt paths to flamingos in the salty lagoons of Dike and Fangassier (22km). Soon we entered the main road D570 and after 5 minutes we parked at the entrance to the park Parc Ornithologique de Pont de Grau Coordinates N 43° 27"10" & E 4° 25"43"
The park opens at 9am, entrance is €7.50 and the ticket is valid for the day. You can probably see birds from a very close distance only in this park. On its territory there are several houses and many paths among the thickets. Early in the morning, the birds are especially active, and in the park they are also fed with “breakfasts”.
All three previous days in Provence there was sultry sunny weather from +37C, and only on the day of our photo-hunting for flamingos the weather turned bad and it rained all day long. In the center of the park there is a large tree with many different herons and other birds.
There is no doubt that in sunny weather, a morning or evening walk through the reserve can be a real culmination of a trip to Provence.
A truly fiery color Red flamingos live on the islands of the Caribbean and in South America.
« Flamingos tend to preen themselves, which takes a significant amount of time each day. They preen themselves by using their beak to distribute fat from a gland at the base of their tail onto their feathers. »
“They have an interesting feeding technique: they stir up mud and water with long legs and webbed feet. Then they dip their beak, or even their head, into the water and absorb mud and water. They shake their heads from side to side to shake off excess dirt and water, and they hold onto and eat plankton, fish, and tiny fly larvae. When feeding, flamingos hold their breath."
“High numbers ensure safety from predators, especially when they feed upside down underwater. »
"Flamingos stand on one leg because they are warming the other at the same time.Flamingo's legs are long, there are no feathers on them, respectively, and the heat from such a surface, especially in windy weather, leaves very quickly.
Easily addicted individuals will find a vast field of activity here, because in pursuit of many types of flamingos they will have to visit several continents.
1- James flamingo 2- Andean flamingo 3- Red flamingo
4- Chilean flamingo 5- Common flamingo 6- Lesser flamingo
Obull pink flamingo is the most numerous andthe only migratoryview. The pair lay one egg and take turns incubating it. Dirty gray young flamingos needeat plenty of carotenoidsfood to turn pink and become attractive to future "brides".
After checking out from the hotel and having lunch on the main street of the village with numerous eateries, we drove around the eastern side of the bay along the D36b road at the very edge of the water. There we met wild bulls, horses, a few flamingos and herons.
We considered only wasted time a further trip along the same D36 to the salt mines Salin de Giraudon the southernmost corner of the Camargue. There are still deposits of salt Salins du Midi on the southwest side of Petit Rhone .
A full report and a detailed map of a recent trip to Provence will be in the next journal entry.
