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Horses, bulls and birds of all types live among the pink marshes of the Camargue, a rugged landscape shaped by the relentless push and pull of sea and river.
By Alexis Steinman
Alexis Steinman, a writer based in Marseille, France, rode horses, bikes and boats while exploring the Camargue.
Aug. 12, 2024, 5:00 a.m. ET
A flamboyance of flamingos was feeding on plankton in a reed-lined marsh. The water reflected their lithe bodies beneath clouds the color of their plumage, blushed by the setting sun. Suddenly, my guide told me to grab my binoculars: Black silhouettes of cows waded through the marsh like hippos in the Serengeti. I had never seen cattle so graceful in the water. This aquatic ballet perfectly summed up the Camargue.
Set in the largest delta in Western Europe, the Camargue, a rustic region of France where the Rhone River meets the Mediterranean Sea, has more water than land and more bulls than people. Thousands of birds migrate to its nutrient-dense terrain. It’s a colorful mosaic: verdant farmland, blue lagoons, sandy beaches and white salt mounds sprouting from marshes tinged pink by microscopic shrimp. “The landscape changes every day,” said my guide, Jean-Yves Boulithe, 56. Yet the Camarguais culture, of fishermen and mustachioed cowboys called gardians, gives the feeling that time stopped at the turn of the 20th century — as do the limited Wi-Fi and cell service.
The Camargue is best experienced in the slow lane, which I kept in mind as I rented a car in Marseille last April for a grand tour of the region, which hugs the coast about halfway between Marseille and Montpellier, south of the tourist hub of Arles. I had been warned about the whipping mistral wind and mosquitoes that keep less rugged travelers away. I had remembered to pack footwear that could get muddy, since many areas are accessible only on foot, in a saddle or on a bike.
A land of salt and mosquitoes
Near Arles, the Rhone splits into two branches, the Petit and Grand, and in this wishbone sits the roughly 300-square-mile Île de Camargue. The Rhone’s yearly floods have menaced the island ever since Phocaean traders and farmers arrived there from Marseille in 600 B.C. In 1869, Napoleon III completed a system of sea dikes and river canals that controlled the floods but transformed the landscape.
The map locates the Camargue region of southern France, south of the city of Arles, and between the cities of Montpellier and Marseille. The region includes the two arms of the Rhone River, the Petit Rhone, and the Grand Rhone, and borders the Mediterranean Sea. The region also includes the cities of Aigues-Mortes, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, and Salin de Giraud.
FRANCE
Paris
FRANCE
Petit Rhone
Arles
Montpellier
Grand Rhone
CAMARGUE
Aigues-Mortes
Salin-de-Giraud
Stes.-Maries-de-la-Mer
Marseille
Mediterranean Sea
20 miles
FRANCE
Paris
FRANCE
Petit Rhone
Arles
Montpellier
Grand Rhone
CAMARGUE
Aigues-Mortes
Stes.-Maries-de-la-Mer
Salin-de-Giraud
Marseille
Mediterranean Sea
20 miles