The Camargue

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Has anyone been to the Camargue?
What's it like?
Worth a visit?
What to watch out for ie Mozzies, Pikies, sex pests etc
Where to stay - even more to the point.
 
We just spent 3 weeks around the Carmargue area in glorious sunshine mostly wild camping.

Places we stayed:

Saintes marie de la mar - On the east side of the town is a long beach with motorhome parking for 8 euros a night. There is a bank between the parking and the beach so no sea views but still a great place. Mozzies are a bit of pain when the sun first goes down.

Sete - There is free parking at the port about 10 mins walk to town. Great market but cant remember what day that was! We did meet one Swiss guy who had been broken into here though. ( when I say 'met' a Swiss guy, he actually reversed into my van denting the bonnet! Swiss are more of a pain than the mozzies I reckon!!!)

N112 between Sete and Adge - Miles of camper parking right alongside the fabulous beach. There is a supermarket and cafe about half way along the road. Bit of road noise at night but great place. No mozzies to speak of.

Looked quite hard but didnt find any sex pests........

For the route down use the A75 and go over the Millau viaduct - WOW! Lots of places for overnight stays around here too. Try Roquefort and go to the cheese caves. Also shore of Lake Salagou is nice.

Have fun!
 
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We were there last year - late March or early April.

Stayed outside the Parc Nationale at a tourist trap called Ste Marie de la Mer, an enormous aire with all the latest and greatest was the only place we could find to park up for the night. It was packed with mainly French vans. Had a superb meal at a restaurant on the sea front - Moules et Frites - one of my favourites, followed by a Stek which I assumed was some poor local white horse that had reached the end of its days on my plate. (Its funny how our travels in France seem to be remembered by the food we ate - I need to see someone about this I think). Ste M was a new town made to look old, a lot of those along the Med coast.

We drove through the Park from Arles (D36 to Salin) then back up some minor roads to the D37, then to Ste M. I think its one of those places that the BBC or Discovery Channel do far better than a quick visit (sorry to all the Camargue lovers). Its just difficult to see a great deal without a helicopter or sitting in a bird hide for hours, its very flat, lots of reeds, lots of grass, lots of water, its managed not wild, looking SE you can see the Port/Refineries/Industry. Only saw a few white horses, most of them are stuck on the front of Porches nowadays!!. Had a walk on a guided trail and it was pleasant, no bugs, but it was early in the year, wild flowers were out and the scents were fantastic, there was a continuous low hum from the industrial area.

Pikies - around Arles there were a few travellers' camps - but its hard to tell a French farm from a camp at times.

Sex pests - dammit we went to the wrong areas again!!! had no problems at all.

Thanks for the question, brought back a lot of memories and got me looking at our travel diary again.
 
Hello mate,
We where there a few years ago. We didn't find the Camargue itself that attractive (a matter of taste I guess :rolleyes:). Hot, sand, marshes, salt piles, a few horses, some flamingo's, desolate landscape....(and the 'vin de sable' didn't steal its name- euch :p) The one village over there (Stes Maries-de-la-Mer) has 2 arires (8€/n -will be more now), tree-less but near and on the vaste beach; it is also a gipsy pilgimage. Wilding is forbidden there. It is not on the east side of the delta: Salin-de-Giraud has an aire. If you do 15 km sand-piste (= Paris-Dakar !) you can wild on the beach of Beauduc.(but an impossible rubish mess in summer!) A little better road leads you after 10 km to the Plage de Plémanson (idem dito) another wilding spot on the beach.
But what nice towns are there around the Camargue :)(helas so touristic in season): Aigues-Mortes (in its medieval walls), Arles (Roman theatre), the medieval village of Les Baux, the Roman Les Antiques (both in the very beautifull hills of les Alpilles). And you have of course Avignon (the pope-town) and the roman Pont du Gard. (and the rosé-wine of that region is :) not mentioning the pastis :eek:)
If you have a little patience I dig up some places in the neighbourhood and post them.
Your personal MI5 on the continent :D;)
 
the pikes or what ever you call em are there for the grape picking they do move on
aigues mortes is an intresting walled old town but we found most ot the camargue area most un intresting and scruffy
 
We visited the camargue this summer and were a bit disappointed because in parts it is very touristy. On the main roads there are establishments where the white horses are tethered for visitors - not our idea of how to see them.

However if you get yourself off the main roads you can see the horses as they should be viewed - namely they roam "wild" (similar scenario to dartmoor ponies over here) but are owned by someone somewhere. Most were a distance away so didn't come out too well on photos - but we persisted and eventually got some good close ups.
We also got to see the flamingoes and the salt workings which were like huge grey mounds with the white salt all around the bottom.

I would say you maybe need to visit sooner than later in case it all becomes spoilt.

Hope this helps your decision

Regards John
 
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