The Camargue: France's Wild West

Separated from the rest of France by 140,000 hectares of wetlands, pastures, dunes and salt flats, the Camargue is peopled by French cowboys (gardians) and cowgirls (gardiannes) who could have come straight from the wild west. They wear cowboy boots, moleskin jeans, spurs, and wide-brimmed, flat-topped hats.

This is Western Europe’s largest river delta, featuring endless brine lagoons - or ‘etangs’ in French. It is protected from the sea by long sand bars and reed-covered marshes, which are home to more than 400 species of birds - including the ‘Greater Flamingo’. Most of the Camargue is designated as a national park (Parc Régional de Camargue). Some of the area is now dedicated to agriculture - to grapes, cereals and the famous Camargue rice. Black bulls are also reared here, for export to Spain.

It can be incredibly hot in summer with lots of flies and mosquitoes so bring jungle formula spray. Winds in autumn and winter can be very strong.

Other Camarguese animals include sheep, wild boar, beavers, badgers; tree frogs, water snakes and pond turtles, along with a rich array of some 400 types of birds.

The Camargue is now a designated World Heritage Site.

Rice was originally grown here to desalinate the earth, and reached peak production between 1942 and 1962, when foreign imports began to undercut prices, leading to the abandonment of 60% of the paddy fields. In 1927, 85,000 hectares of the region was protected as a nature reserve. Since 1970, to protect the fragile eco-system, the region has been designated a National Park. Salt is also produced in the area, and prized for its strong flavour.

All over France people leap over the Feu de St Jean on June 19th, but in the Camargue they do it on horseback. And the fire is big, very big. The next day is an unofficial holiday in Les Saintes; everyone stops work, mounts up and rides into town for the huge free breakfast before launching into a full day involving gypsy music, bulls and horses running through the streets of the town, a mounted procession, saucisson de taureau, riding displays, boeuf gardian (beef in red wine flavoured with orange peel and served with local rice), and of course the competitions.

These include grabbing an orange: riding ventre à terre, contestants have to snatch an orange off a plate held up to them by a girl in traditional Arles dress. Then there’s the saut d’un cheval à l’autre - which also takes place at a fast gallop and involves the gardians jumping from one horse to another.

And of course, the famous black bulls. Guardians are crazy about “la course Camarguaise”: a type of bull-running in which men attempt to pull tassels and strings off the horns of wild bulls in an arena - and it is the men rather than the bulls who risk injury.