France: Camargue National Park

Camargue National Park is the Everglades of France – the vast delta of the Rhone river – swamps, lakes, stale water. I totally didn’t expect anything like this – wild horses, wild bulls, and flamingos! It felt like it was Africa and not Provence in France. The delta area is vast and both horses and bulls are semi wild and world famous. Horses are snow white and the breed is prized all over the world. The bulls are even more famous – the Camargue beef is a delicacy that has an AOC label in France (like good cognac or champagne). The bulls are completely wild except they are branded at birth – they are used for meat as well as the traditional bull fighting. They are smaller and much more agile then the famous Pamplona bulls, and the bull fighting goes back centuries here. And finally – flamingos – in hundreds, feeding in the algae of the stale delta water.