Camargue sample
Friday, 5 October 2012
Despite a marine layer that alternately blanketed us, didn’t, and transitioned between presence/absence, we got a good look all across the delta of the Rhône between the main flow and the Petit Rhône, known as the Camargue. Lots happens here, although it seemed a bit alternately touristy and sleepy. It’s known for its white horses*, black bulls, and pink flamingos. I give you the latter. (We also saw swans, ducks, and more.) They also grow rice here, including a nice-looking red rice I’ll have to look for state-side.
Economically, there’s of course shipping, but that passes by rather than stopping. The big resource-extraction activity here is salt recovered from the sea. We only saw this happening with large equipment; I don’t know if other methods are used. Note: those are BIG trucks; that’s a huge salt pile.
* In general, we’ve seen a higher proportion of white horses throughout southern France than I’ve seen in North America. The saddle-and-ride places have ALL white horses, no doubt selected to make the tourists happy enough to open their wallets (18 euro for 1.5 hours).