Visiting the "Wild West of France"

Sabine
Oct 23, 2019
2 min read

Camargue, France was one of the most interesting places I have visited. It is full of so much land, it almost felt like Iowa. My host family and I drove the 3 1/2 hours to Camargue on a beautiful Saturday morning. The terrain was dry and vast with white speckles in the distance. When we got closer, I saw that they were white horses. Camargue is known for the popularity of white horses that live either wild or on ranches. Camargue is a region located south of Arles, France. Also known as, the Wild West of France.

We went into Aigues Mortes, a French commune that is guarded by medieval city walls on its perimeter. One thing that we did was walk the entire perimeter of the walls. This was when I got to see what I didn't ever believe was real. The pink lakes. In the photo above, the lake is pink because of the salt that is harvested from this area. There are salt "mountains" (to the left in the photo below) that you are also able to see in the distance from the city walls.

We visited with my host mothers best friend, who also happened to be hosting an Italian exchange student. Immediately we clicked. Agnese and I got to talk to each other about our experiences as exchange students and everything above and below that.

Agnese took this photo from a view from the castle of Aigues Mortes and it was too beautiful to not show. I love how it isolates just the harbor-- It really captured the relaxed vibe of the harbor of Aigues Mortes

On the other hand, Aigues Mortes had their city celebration/tradition of the taureau (the bulls.) I felt transported into some kind of movie when I saw the bulls running in between the horses. This happened at least 15 times during the weekend celebration. People flooded the streets in different costumes and even tried to run with them. In the video below, it really feels like a movie scene.

At the night time there was a fair that reminded me of the fair my hometown has in the summertime.