Tuesday 22nd September - Horses, Cattlemen and Bulls The boat stopped and tied up to the bank and everyone got off to watch a display of horsemanship and to see the horses and bulls up close. Everyone crowded along a path above the fields that were just dried mud with no grass and a few weeds spasmodically growing on the surface. The cowboys on their white horses mad a grande entry and slowly moved down the series of paddocks to round up the 20 or so bulls w...

Tuesday 22nd September - Rice and Salt and Reeds and Wine The Camargue produces one third of all the rice for the national consumption and there is an area of 23,000 hectares in production. The biggest and most important activity is the production of salt. An annual amount of 450,000 tonnes is produced on only 5000 hectares. He different landowners joined with a businessman from Montpellier to create the "Salins du Midi" in 1856 and it still exists today. Th...

Tuesday 22nd September - Camargue Horses and Bulls Camargue horses are world renouned as the white horses. The horses are not white when they are born but a variety of browns, fawns, greys and beige and they don't acquire their white coats until about their fifth year. They shed their rough winter coats in the spring and grow a fine silky hair and this process gets them their lighter whiter coats. They are hardy as they live in an area that is flat and the g...

Tuesday 212nd September - Camargue Boat Trip The trip started right on time and we were glad that we weren't on one of the school trip boats as the racket coming from them was tremendous. The boat backed out and turned under the swing bridge that had been moved out of the way some time earlier. We were given a booklet of the things to see and do as the trip went along and all in English with was a blessing as all of the commentary was in French and becaus...

Tuesday 22nd September - Aigues-Mortes We had decided to drive back to Aigues-Mortes and do the boat ride into the Camargue. The closer we got Aigues the cloudier it got so that when we got there it wasn't that warm. The drive took about 40 minutes and once we were out of Montpellier the drive became somewhat easier. There was no time for a coffee once we arrived and found a parking spot for the car as it was after 10.00am and the boat left at 10.30am. ...