Did you know salt has 14,000 uses? Sea salt, rock salt, and vacuum salt are just a few of the kinds harvested here in Camargue at Salin d’Aguies-Mortes (literally salt of the dead water). There are only a handful of natural pink lakes in the world.
-
- A medieval castle peeks from behind the impossibly pink water.
-
- The salt is harvested in different channels, each an intense color depending on the salinity and the level of algae.
-
- Similar to the Dead Sea, we floated easily in five feet of water.
-
- Walking out of the salt pool, Mike and Michèle will be covered in a salt crust within minutes.
-
- Fleur de sel (literally the flower of salt) is the gourmet stuff, on the very top layer, and is painstakingly skimmed by hand.
-
- Salt crystals near the water’s edge. Looks like winter.
-
- Flamingoes eat their way into those vibrant colors, swallowing shrimp and algae.
-
- Looks like Antarctica, right? It’s salt. Let’s hope that France has an icy winter ahead.
-
- We climbed to the top of a 60 ft. camelle (camel hump) that had 200,000 tons of rock salt.
-
- Hubert cracking open a bottle of Camargue Rose for our picnic dinner.
-
- The salt flats – like a lunar landscape.
-
- We found out you must be careful not to drive too close to the edge of the salt ponds. It took several hours, muscle, rope, the kindness of strangers and a lot of ingenuity to get us out.
-
- A hillbilly ride in the back of a truck through the marshes.
-
- The Camargue is perfectly flat, clad in long grasses and hidden marshes. The salt extraction activity has actually preserved a wetlands habitat.
-
- An opulent seaside picnic, courtesy of our host, Hubert François, CEO of Salins Group.
Leave A Comment