The Pink Flamingoes in Camargue – Road Trip in France #15

I had a very National Geographic vision of the Camargue: I imagined pink flamingos flying over my head, wild horses running on deserted beaches, bulls being caught by the French version of “gauchos” on horseback. And then we went to the Camargue, and I wonder where all these images come from because the ratio expectation vs. reality hurts a bit.

Note: this blog article is part of the “Road Trip in France” made in August 2020. To read the previous parts, click here : #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13 and #14

Part 1: Travel Diary
Part 2: Practical Tips

Part 1: Travel Diary

This is the very first time we set foot in the Camargue. The Camargue, as I learned at school in Vietnam, is the only place in France where you can grow rice. But the school didn’t teach me that there are many, many mosquitoes in the Camargue as well. European size, twice as big as the Vietnamese mosquitoes and make twice as much noise.

Fortunately, we are staying in a farmhouse (Le Mas d’Icard, 65€, link Booking) and they put mosquito nets on all the windows. We are on August 13th and the reservation was made a month and a half in advance. In spite of this, the demand is such that JB had to call several guest rooms before finding one available. All the accommodations that could be booked online were full (except the luxury establishments at 300 € per night). So if you don’t want to stay in Arles (though, there must be fewer mosquitoes), book well in advance.

I like this place very much because there are lots of wild cats hanging out in the garden. Some are more sociable than others but all of them are super cute. Even if they are fed by the owner, they only, like Rosalie (my cat), beg for food by meowing like hungry people (Rosalie has access to kibble in the open bar though). The most beautiful of them is this grey cat, very shy but greedy <3 <3

Seeing that we are completely lost, the owner takes out a map and shows us some places of interest:

1. The Ornithological Park
2. Camargue Horse House
3. House of Rice
4. The Museum of the Camargue
5. La Capelière (viewpoint)
6. Les Salins du Midi at Aigues-Mortes
7. Aigues-Mortes
8. The Gacholle Lighthouse
9. And a path accessible by car in the summer, connecting the Mas de Cacharel to Méjanes.

Since we see the words “étang” and “réserve” on the map, we head directly towards the path linking Mas de Cacharel to Méjanes, hoping to see the National Geographic scenes I was telling you about at the beginning. In summer, we can go there by car

But the reality is quite different: only the path is accessible by car, most of the interesting places (where there are lots of flamingos there…) are private properties, not accessible. And it is really not recommended to climb over the barriers because what is waiting for us on the other side? Not very sociable bulls, bred for arenas.

The problem is that we don’t see much, the flamingos are few. I don’t know if we can see more if we opt for a horse ride, and access to private properties. Here for example, there are 5 of them, very far away :

Here, there are a hundred of them, but you have to zoom in.

No horses running merrily in the water. Horses stay inside the fences like this. Although very well treated. There is often one bird per bull or one bird per horse, which takes care of the flies that circle around them.

Restaurant : la Manade des Baumelles

We naively ask why despite the many bulls we see on both sides of the road, there isn’t enough meat. And we are told that they are bred mainly for bullfighting (fighting in the arenas), not for meat. Whaaaat?

Orthinological Park

We visit Aigues-Mortes first before returning to the area to visit the Orthinological Park 30 minutes before it closes. Apparently in the morning, flamingos sleep (with one foot up), and they are more numerous and more awake at the end of the afternoon

Here you can enter the park within the opening hours, but afterwards you can exit at any time, there is a secure turnstile system for the exit.

The recommended route is marked with numbers. Most tourists are content to do from 1 to 10 and then get out, few brave people do the whole route.

I didn’t know what to expect from this park, it’s very well laid out. There are always plants around the ponds so you can hide and watch all kinds of birds. Sometimes there are raised observation platforms. It’s Disneyland, but in nature.

On arriving on the spot, one wonders why we took so much trouble this morning to look for the pink flamingos whereas there are a hundred of them around here, super close, accessible. We have time to make the route from 1 to 10, then we realize that the more time passes, the more they find themselves at the pond just next to the entrance.

We see groups of flamingos flying over our heads, it’s magnificent! I don’t know why they are all in the same place (with a lot of tourists in addition). I don’t know if they feed the flamingos here (or drop shrimps in the pond for them to come).

Look how close I am to them (I’m sitting on the right).

They make a lot, but a lot of noise, it’s unbelievable. And they bicker a lot. It only takes one flamingo to proudly take out a shrimp and the other one will steal its food directly from its beak. The others, attending the fight, also participate in case the shrimp from one of the two beaks.

At one point, a few flamingos cross the path to go from one pond to another (too lazy to fly probably) and we can admire their ballet dancer pose. It isn’t the first time we see flamingos, JB saw a lot of them in Chile, then we saw some in Cuba, but we have never seen so many and so close.

They aren’t very pink at the moment because they need to eat even more shrimp to become pink. The ones we see here are still in their teens.

They are too much fun to watch. There is a small café on site where you can sip a cool drink while watching them.

I didn’t see many different birds (most of them are quite small) but that’s because I didn’t look for them either. With binoculars and a little patience, I’m sure you’ll see lots of them. There are often “clouds” of small yellow birds, very talkative with a high-pitched song, they are really cute trooooop birds

With the heat wave, the world and the mosquitoes, we frankly don’t have the courage to dig and visit more. We saw a lot of rice fields though.

Our attempt to go to the beach is a failure: impossible to find a parking space. So we have to pass by at 8am to see what the (superb) beach in the Camargue looks like, but usually it’s crowded.

In short, it was a little disappointing because we had too many expectations. Fortunately, we did not plan to stay there for a long time.

If you know where we could have seen horses in total freedom running in the water, I would like the GPS coordinates please.

Our next article, it’s this way

Part 2: Practical Tips

Useful links

• Our accommodation : Le Mas d’Icard, 65€, link Booking, remember to book in advance!
• If you don’t have a motorized car, you can choose a half-day excursion in the Camargue from Aix-en-Provence with Civitatis (here)
• 4 weeks Road Trip in France by car: program & detailed plans here
• These points of interest are part of the +800 tourist places in France that we recommend. To access free Google Maps of the 800 places in question, click here
• More info about our car rental at Leclerc (5€/day + 8cts per km) here

Budget

• Accommodation (in a farmhouse): Le Mas d’Icard, 65€, link Booking (breakfast, very simple, included. Air conditioning in the room, mosquito nets in the windows, I recommend)
• Restaurant : Manade des Baumelles, count about 30€/person
• Ornithological Park of the Pont de Gau : 7,5€ (you can rent binoculars)

I leave you a brochure on horse riding, it is the same owner as our accommodation