June 2021

Last part of the trip to Camargue is finally ready and I am very happy to put it online before the trip’s anniversary in a couple of weeks. In this part, we’ll show THE things people come to Camargue in the first place: flamingos, white horses, black bulls and breathtaking nature (like everywhere in France for that matter). Even a little glimpse on Xavier’s nude. 😏

The best beaches are not the ones printed on postcards with paradise sunsets, the best beaches are the ones you notice suddenly on your way, then you have to cycle 2-3 kilometers on an empty path surrounded with wild flowers all around and then you undress completely and jump in the fresh water. And you are completely alone in this piece of the world. Yes, those beaches are the best ones.

Before coming to Camargue, our only visual reference was the article by French bloggers L’Oeil d’Eos. What we saw was so insanely beautiful that we immediately put it on our bucket list and I’m endlessly happy to finally cross it out.

Moreover, we saw every point one has to see in Camargue, starting with horses and including little huts with semi-round roofs. Very country like and again – very different from the rest of France.

We also made an interesting detour that won’t make it in this article – to Arles and Nîmes. Arles was more or less on our way and we took the opportunity to see a friend of ours. In Nîmes, however, we stopped to rent a big lens for flamingos. None of these towns are the part of Camargue, that’s why they will stay only in our memories so far. Till our next trip to Provence, hopefully!

Camargue rancho

Our next stop was in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, which in some way can be called the capital of Camargue. It’s famous above all for its gypsy pilgrimage taking place in October but even without any festivities this town is adorable. Touristy but in a nice way. Just look at these houses!

Now, ladies and gentlemen, comes the last paragraph, which is the whole reason we are here – flamingos. Impossible to come to Camargue without visiting Parc Ornithologique Pont de Gau. It felt like the climax of the whole adventure and coming ahead of myself – it was amazing! Even if we couldn’t help ourselves not to have a tiny misfortune – entering the park without the spare batteries… Considering we went to Nîmes to rent a lens, it was painful.

On another side, empty batteries allowed us to save a few hours that we would have dedicated to sort the huge number of flamingo pictures, because it would have been very unlikely if we stopped just on 500. I tell you – picking pictures for the blog was a true torture!

I feel pretty confident to claim that had it not been for the empty batteries (sorry for bringing them again, I simply can’t get over it!), we would have stayed there much longer – not only flamingos deserve their own portrait, but all other dwellers of the park too!

So that was it. It took a long while to sort the pictures and putting all three articles took even longer, all due to the war in Ukraine that completely dissolved my brain and concentration. I don’t want to give up on photography and traveling though, so stay tuned! With a bit of luck this blog will soon see our trip to Cuba in 2013, who knows. 😉