7 Best Sights in Provence, France

Near the northern shore of the Etang de Vaccarès, 4 km (2½ miles) north of Albaron on the D37, this unique cultural center, funded by the Ricard family of pastis fame and set on one of the larger estates in the Camargue, is a place to meet gardiens (French cowboys) and learn about the toro, or bull—virtually a totemic creature in these parts. You’ll also gain a better understanding of the regional spectacle known as the course camarguaise, in which raseteurs (runners) try to pluck off a red cockade and two white tassels mounted on the bull’s horns. There is no mise à mort (as in Spanish-style corridas, or bullfights), so the bulls live to enter the arena again and again—some even become such celebrities that they make the covers of French magazines.

Other activities include touring an on-site museum, where exhibits detail the remarkable history of Paul Ricard and the estate; hopping aboard a petit train for a 20-minute tour of the marshlands; or mounting a horse or pony for a beachside trot. At Chez Hélène et Néné restaurant, you can feast on Camargue seafood while gazing at the beach and the ocean. If you want to stay the night, the estate has several charming accommodation options—from guest rooms to cottages to colorful wooden, Roma-style caravans.

At the easternmost point of the Etang du Vaccarès, La Capeliére has a good visitor center with maps as well as exhibits on wildlife. There are three sentiers de découverte (discovery trails) radiating from its pond-side position, each leading to a small observatory.

You can pick up maps and get other information at this center, just up the D570 from the Parc Ornithologique at Pont de Gau. To explore this area, you'll have to strike out on foot, bicycle, or horseback (the park's website has a downloadable English-language brochure with stables clearly marked on a map). Note that you are not allowed to diverge from marked trails.

North of the village of Albaron, between Arles and Stes-Maries-de-la-Mer, this former sheep ranch is now a museum devoted to the region's history, produce, and people, including the gardians. It's also a good place to pick up information about nature trails.

As you drive the few roads that crisscross the Camargue, you'll usually be within the boundaries of the Parc Naturel Régional de Camargue. Unlike most state and national parks in the United States, this area is supervised by the state but privately owned, primarily by the manadiers, small-scale ranchers who graze their wide-horned bulls and broad-bellied, white-dappled horses here and are helped by the gardians—French cowboys who ride through the marshlands wearing leather pants and wide-rimmed black hats and wielding long cattle prods.

Some posit that the Camargue's curved-horned taureaux (bulls) were imported by Attila the Hun; others, that they are descended from ancient, indigenous wild animals. Regardless, they bear the noble marks of their ancestors. The strong, heavy-tailed Camargue horse has been traced to the Paleolithic period (though some claim the Moors imported an Arab strain) and is prized for its endurance and tough hooves.

The gardians are as fascinating as the animals they herd. Their homes—tiny, whitewashed, cane-thatched huts with the north end raked and curved apselike as protection from the vicious mistral—dot the countryside. The signature wrought-iron crosses at the gable invoke holy protection and serve as lightning rods.

The easiest place to view birdlife is the Parc Ornithologique du Pont de Gau. On some 150 acres of marsh and salt lands, birds are protected, and injured birds are treated and kept in large pens, to be released if and when they're deemed able to survive. A series of boardwalks (including a short, child-friendly inner loop) snakes over the wetlands, the longest leading to an observation blind, where a half hour of silence, binoculars in hand, can reveal unsuspected satisfactions.

If you're an even more committed nature lover, venture into this inner sanctum of the Camargue, an intensely protected area that contains the central pond called Le Vaccarès and is mostly used for approved scientific research. The wildlife (birds, nutria, fish) is virtually undisturbed here, and you won't come across the cabins and herds of bulls and horses found elsewhere in the Camargue.