La Camargue

Last Saturday, AUCP offered us yet another outing. Though this one required me to leave my house at 7:15 on a Saturday morning, it was worth it. This week's destination: La Camargue.

La Camargue is a region not far from Arles that is maintained as a nature preserve. The official term is "Wetland of International Importance." As the term indicates, it's a wetland. I know, shocker. But it's not just a boring marsh. It is actually quite beautiful. 

This is the symbol of La Camargue: A cross, heart, and anchor

Before we reached the officially protected area though, we went to a little town called Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. It's a quaint little village that dates back to at least the 4th century AD and is centered around a church that was built from the 9th to the 12th century (yes, that's from and to, not between - churches take a long time to be built!). The village is also featured in a few works of classic Provencal literature. After a lunch and a short walk along the beach, we all got to walk up on top of the church and look out across the sea. The views were pretty awesome.

 Kristen liked the bull statue

Afterwards, we got back on the bus to go to the actual preserved part of La Camargue. We got to take a little train ride around the marshy parts, and we saw a flock of flamingos, a herd of young bulls, and something that looked rather like a beaver, but apparently was not... Some things get lost in translation!

After the train ride, we walked along a trail and got to see all the horses that live on the preserve. This is something La Camargue is famous for. There were also two very cute ponies! I took lots of pictures, mostly for Sarah.

It's hard to see, but this was some kind of wild boar.

La Camargue is a few hours from Aix, so we had to head back after our trail walk, but it's cool to see areas like this in France. It's not all little villages and big cities like Paris! There are really beautiful little spots in nature too.