Camargue - Land of Flamingos and Wild White Horses

Our place for four nights in Provence was with gentle, interesting and so very gracious Nicole and Gerard in Les Pennes Mirabeau between Marseille and Aix.  The location was perfect for us and the bed and breakfast turned out to be perfect also.  The first night we dined at Mas d'Entremont, an upscale restaurant we had discovered on our 2012 visit to the region.  It did not disappoint.  It was too cold to eat in their large and beautiful garden but the inside dining room was set in the garden with glass walls so it was the next best thing.  The most special part of a dinner there is the cheese board which includes about 30 varieties from around France and the helpings are lavish.

Alice had her favorite fish soup to start - complete with croutons, garlicky mayonnaise and cheese to add in

Randy had giant prawns with salad to start

Alice enjoyed scallops, vegetables and red Camargue rice

The cheese lady explained all of the cheeses patiently and loaded Alice's plate with a representative sample.  She also provided a reduced (cooked) wine "jam" which was more like a sauce to enhance the cheese as desired.

So many cheeses - so little room in Alice's stomach to eat them!

The next day (Sunday) we voyaged to Camargue - a protected marsh area west of Marseille along the coast.  This area is well known for its birds and its wild white horses.  It is more popular with French people (especially on this spring Sunday) than with tourists.  Clive, our ever reliable GPS, navigated us well and then told us to "Board ferry."  I gasped - what did he just say?  Yes, we had to enter a line for a ferry to reach the Camargue.  The ferry crossed the Rhone River which at that point is quite wide as it is almost entering the Mediterranean Sea.  Luckily the wait was not too long (about 15 minutes) and we paid 5 Euro and took the 10 minute ride on the car ferry across.  The other cars with were filled with French families with their dogs and their picnic baskets.

On the car ferry to the Camargue area that crosses the Rhone River

View towards the Med from the ferry

Arriving, we headed off on the small roads.  We stopped at various locations to view the birds, mainly the pink flamingos.  We were amazed to located two different small groups of wild white horses.  These are stocky and handsome horses with touches of light brown in places.  Working our way around the salt water lagoon area, we found a picnic spot along a back road with good flamingo views.  We ate our cheese and bread and enjoyed the sun and the birds.

Randy seeks out flamingos

The wild white horses of the Camargue - we found two small groups on our drive through the back roads (see photo above and two below) and saw too loving each other also - photo just below (these two are probably not wild though )

Close of a Camargue horse - this one not wild but the same kind

A panorama from our picnic spot in the Camargue marsh

Wild flamingos dine in the shallow marsh

We parked at the main village in the area, Saintes-Marie-de-la-Mer, and walked along the beach.  This was well populated with French (and maybe other European) sun worshipers and their dogs.  It was a pleasant day and we enjoyed our brief seaside walk.  We then drove to an ornithological park a few kilometers away.  This was an awesome place with good trails and wonderful birds. The birds are almost all wild, that is, fully in their natural habitat.  They are abundant and the trails are flat and well marked.  Along the way, Alice also spotted a large mammal eating in an inaccessible road.  It looked like a beaver with a rat tail.  Later, back at our bed and breakfast, together (Randy, Alice, Nicole and Gerard) consulted the internet and identified this creature as a nutria or coypu (ragondin in French).  We ran out of time and could only do half of the trails.  We will have to return for the other half.  We bought some Carmargue grown red rice and salt (the area is famous for both) from the shop across the street and returned to Les Pennes Mirabeau.  

Randy and Alice on the seaside at Saintes-Marie-de-la-Mer

A panorama of the beach area (which is very large and sandy)

The seawall at Saintes-Marie-de-la-Mer

A bathroom area for the numerous dogs at the seaside

The amazing bird park just north of Saintes-Marie-de-la-Mer

A map of the trails - we only did the trails on the right side of the map due to time constraints

Some of the herds of flamingos in the bird park - all wild

Many other birds were there too - like this red beaked duck

Storks and herons nested in the trees.  They build their nests very close to each other.

A close up of the flamingos.  Some have a lot of black on the underside of their wings.  We were lucky to experience a small flock of flying flamingos (they are huge) just over our car as we were driving along a back road.

A swan enjoys being at home in the bird park

The nutria eating something along a road that is off limits to park goers

Apparently Sunday evening is when the French restaurants close down (except for cities or tourist areas).  Nicole and Gerard recommended and booked us in at a local pizza place.  This turned out to be delicious and fun, and a good change from the heavy French dinners we had been eating.  Our young waitress had just returned from a two week holiday to Los Angeles and spoke good enough English.  We dined on salad, pizza and local red wine. 

The pizza place in the nearby village of Calas

The chef/owner (in blue) outside of his popular pizza restaurant

The hip waitress advises Randy on a  pizza loaded with meat - she advised (and he enjoyed) the "Royale"

The salad we shared had a dressing that was like Ranch - a surprise

Randy's Royale pizza.  Alice's was vegetable but had no cheese (how can a pizza have no cheese?) but was relatively healthy and tasty.