La Grande Camargue

The Grande Camargue, at the mouth of the Rhône, covers the entire Rhône Delta. Located between two arms of the river – the Grand Rhône to the east and the Petit Rhône to the west – and bounded on the south by the Mediterranean, the Grande Camargue is, in effect, an island and is sometimes referred to as L’Ile de la Camargue. Over millenia, the land was created from sedimentation deposited by the Rhône. Until the 19th century it was known to “drift.” Even today as much as 26 million cubic yards of sand and gravel per year are carried downstream and deposited along the eastern edge of the Camargue. Most of the Grande Camargue consists of a fragile network of lakes and marshes, with almost no human habitation. The southernmost reach of la Grande Camargue includes the Plage de Beauduc, a 28-mile-long stretch of undeveloped “wild sand,” the longest beach of its kind on the Mediterranean.

La Petite Camargue

La Plaine d’Aigues Mortes, also known as La Petite Camargue or La Camargue Gardoise, extends west of the Petit Rhône to the Canal du Rhône à Sète. The canal, a natural waterway enhanced by man, carries pleasure boats from the Rhône to the Mediterranean. Though the Petite Camargue is made up of a fine balance of agricultural and ranch land, salt and freshwater marshes, lagoons, channels, ponds and pine forests, most of it, unlike the Grande Camargue, lies outside of the regional nature reserves and conservation areas. It has more paved roads, for exploring by bicycle or car. Several châteaux and the walled town of Aigues Mortes testify to crusader connections. Port Camargue, at it is southernmost tip, offers sailors the biggest pleasure sailing port in Europe.

Les Salins

Salins are saltworks. There are two major sea saltworks in the Camargue, one south of Aigues Mortes (25,000 acres) and one south of Salin de Giraud (27,000 acres). Together, the two areas export more than half a million metric tons of salt annually. Such industrial works may seem an odd inclusion in a travel guidebook. But, if you are in the region, the acres of salt pans and the long snakes of salt mountains, each as high as a seven-story building, are remarkable sights. Salt is extracted from evaporating seawater in much the same way as was done in ancient times. The Romans exported salt from this region throughout their empire. The existing industry was founded by monks in the 13th century and expanded in the 19th century.

The Crau

The Plain of the Crau (pronounced “crow”) extends from just south of Arles to the Mediterranean along the eastern edge of the Camargue. It is is the closest thing to a real desert on continental Europe and, despite some recent agricultural development, has a brooding, desolate ambiance.

Formed from rocks and pebbles washed down from the Alps during the last two Ice Ages, the Crau’s development was shaped by changing river patterns that prevented deposits of finer sediments and left, instead, a wide area of boulders and gravel. Just below the surface, a layer of calcium carbonate as hard as concrete cuts the surface off from the underlying ground water. For centuries, this was a barren, arid area – particularly during the hot summer months. In more recent times, irrigation has opened the northern Crau (about half its total area) to agriculture – in particular the cultivation of feed hay and fruit trees.