A Week in Provence: Day 3, the Carmague

Today we loaded up the telephoto and took off for the Camargue. The Camargue is (French) cowboy country. There are the usual cowboy things, like cows, horses, and big steaks on restaurant menus--and there are the less manly things, like the pink flamingos begging for attention there on the right.

We stopped first at the old sheep barn that serves as the Musée Camarguais at Mas du Pont de Rousty. It was fun, but mostly in French. There was an interesting photo exhibition with pictures from 1910 that showed the good old days of the Camargue. It was a decent enough introduction to the culture of the place.

Then we headed to the town of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. What a hoot. I can't think of another town I've ever visited that was made up almost entirely of restaurants. You can eat, stroll the beach promenade, eat some more, go up on the terrace of the church, and, well, eat again if you wish because you've done it all.

The upside of all this restaurant competition is that prices are pretty darn moderate for the type of food that's being served. Huge stands sold food to take away, which would be a good money-saving tip if you're heading over to see the birds at the Parc Ornithologique de Pont de Grau, where they have a picnic table or two near the entrance or you can sit on a bench along the well-marked trails and watch flamingos mating while downing your sandwich.

We, however, headed off to the recommended Hostellerie du Pont de Gau, which happens to sit right outside the entrance to the bird park. I gotta warn you, opening a menu there can be hazardous to your health; because the first pages are devoted to over-the-top menus. €50 for lunch was a bit much. But page through, and the prices moderate a bit--to about twice what they're charging in Saintes-Maries.

So, rather than start our restaurant search all over again, we went ahead and ordered a single dish for each of us. I ordered the Petite Bouillabaisse. Nothing particularly petite about it. I got a big bowl with six or seven fish fillets plus some mussels and prawns, a plate with rounds of toast and aioli and grated cheese, and a big bowl of broth. As you ate you buttered up the toasts with aioli and let them sink into the broth a bit.When the broth in your bowl got low, some young woman in charge of these things came over and asked you if you wanted more ladeled over the whole deal, to which I said "oui" because I didn't know what else to say, my French being sub-par and all. It actually seemed worth the price (in France), which was €27.50. Martha had a huge grilled Loup de Mer fillet sitting on a bed of creamed leeks and it was perfectly cooked, fresh and mighty tasty, too. So, despite the cost, we were happy. Maybe it was the wine, but more likely it was the old "you get what you pay for" thing.

After lunch we walked the trails of the bird park through some scenic wetlands. Flamingos were everywhere, especially near the entrance. They protest a lot. Many people don't know that, but the screeching was mighty obnoxious. Maybe they do it for the tourists.

It took us about two hours to walk all the trails because there wasn't a way to make a neat loop out of the whole deal. Besides the birds we saw the typical horses and a bit later, as we drove home, the bulls of the Camargue. It was a fine, shirtsleeve afternoon for November. The horses were itching to take tourists on rides through the wild country of the Camargue, but there were few takers. If you want to see the Camargue at its finest, go in the off season.

Find out more about The Camargue. And click the pictures to see them bigger. They like that.